Cleary Family History
Cleary Name Meaning
Irish (especially Tipperary): from Ó Cléirigh ‘descendant of Cléireach’ a name meaning ‘clerk’ or ‘cleric’. Ó Cléirigh is a famous learned family in Ireland. The less common surname McCleary formed with the article Mac an Chléirigh ‘son of the cleric’ is a variant. Both Irish names are also commonly Anglicized by translation as Clarke . Scottish: variant of McCleary .
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022