McCleary
family name
McCleary is an Irish surname. It originated in Galway, Ireland, but the surname is primarily now found in Ulster and Scotland with many descendants in Ulster Scots and Irish areas of North America.
The name McCleary is derived from the Gaelic Mac Cléirigh which means Son of the Cleric (or Son of the Priest).
The earliest derivation of the name is possibly Mael Fabhaill mac Cleireach, ancestor of the Ó hEidhin/Hynes family of County Galway, fl. 800.
However, many surnames such as Clarke and MacTaggart also derive from son of the cleric or son of the priest. Orphans were often taken in by the local religious orders, and indeed priests fathered children before the adoption of celibacy, which may be the source of variations of this surname.
List of persons with the surname
Andrew McCleary (1863–1944), Canadian politician
Boyd McCleary (born 1949), British diplomat, governor of the British Virgin Islands
Brian Verdon McCleary (1897–1978), New Zealand rugby player
Charles H. McCleary (1842–1906), American soldier
Christopher R. McCleary (born 1956), American venture capitalist
Ernie McCleary (1923–2012), Northern Irish footballer
Garath McCleary (born 1987), Jamaican professional Association footballer
George W. McCleary (1807–1873), American politician
James McCleary (1853–1924), United States Representative from Minnesota
Mary McCleary (born 1951), American artist
Rachel McCleary, American academic
Tracy McCleary (died 2003), American jazz band leader
Trent McCleary (born 1972), Canadian former professional hockey player
Urie McCleary (1905–1980), American art director and designer in Hollywood
William McCleary (1853–1917), Canadian merchant and politician
Places
McCleary, Washington, United States
McCleary Glacier, Antarctica
See also
James MacCleary, British politician
McCleary Elementary School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
McCleery
McClary
Cleary (surname)
Clary (disambiguation)
References
Clerical Households in Late Medieval Italy, Roisin Cossar, Harvard University Press, 2017.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “McCleary” as family name. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as family name. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q21492062. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1863, 1944, 1949 and 1897.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “McCleary”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow McCleary primary sources, McCleary archive and McCleary research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “McCleary”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “McCleary” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.