[1] Nearby there is no appropriate toponym with the adjective "large" in modern times, yet it is possible that this settlement is in opposition to the village Rëmenj on the Albanian side of Lake Ohrid meaning Vlachs (Aromanians).

[1][2] During the mid-fourteenth century, a document of Serbian Tsar Stefan Dušan refers to property of St Clement church in Ohrid with the settlement recorded under the name Frugovi Vlasi, which later possibly broke up into two villages identified as being modern Mali Vlaj and nearby Frangovo.

[3] Local traditions in the Struga area refer to the residents of Mali Vlaj as originating from Rëmenj, Albania arriving in the late eighteenth century.

[3] Mali Vlaj was inhabited by Aromanians, belonging to the Frashëriot subgroup that originated from Albania and became assimilated during the course of the 19th century.

[4] The Vevčani-Radožda dialect of Macedonian is spoken in Mali Vlaj, that also contains some lexical differences distinguishing it from the speech of neighbouring Vevčani and Radožda.