McCleary
An Irish surname probably meaning “son of the cleric,” though some 19th-century writers proposed a different Gaelic explanation.
The #5,317 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 47,108 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is usually treated as an Anglicized form of an Irish Gaelic name built with Mac/Mc, meaning “son of,” plus a personal byname related to cleireach, “cleric” or “churchman.” That gives the sense “son of the cleric,” or more loosely “son of a churchman.” Some older sources also tried to connect it with words meaning an elderly or superannuated clergyman, but the underlying idea is still a clerical byname rather than a place-name or occupation in the modern sense.
History
The name is found in Irish and Irish-diaspora usage, especially in families whose surname was adapted into English spelling over time. 19th-century surname writers sometimes grouped McCleary with other Mac/Mc names of uncertain or overlapping Gaelic origin, which is why older explanations can vary. In modern records it appears in several spellings, with McCleary becoming a standard English form.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Because the old Gaelic element cleireach could mean a cleric or scholar, the surname has sometimes been glossed in surprisingly literal English as “son of a priest,” though that is more interpretive than exact.
From the historical record
“McCawley ; McCauliffe, McCausland, McCaw, McChesny, McClain, McClannin, McClarren, ^McClearn, McCleary, McClelland, McClenathan, McClenigan, McClennan and McClennen, McClin, McClintock, McClone, McCloskey and McCluskey, McClure, McCol.gan and McColigan, McCollum, McColough, McColph, McCombe, McConachy, Mc- CoNiHE…”
— Suffolk Surnames (3rd ed.)