Jem

Jem is an English name functioning as a diminutive of James, which derives from the Late Latin Iacomus, itself a variant of Iacobus, adapted from the Greek Iakobos and ultimately from the Hebrew Ya'akov, meaning one who follows at the heel or one who supplants. It was used as an informal spoken form of James in early modern Britain and appears in historical records as an independent given name from at least the eighteenth century. The name gained wider literary recognition through characters in English fiction, most notably the boy narrator Jeremy Finch, called Jem, in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Related forms include James, Jim, Jamie, and Jacob.