Given name & surname
Cleary
“a learned man; a scholar”
Cleary is used as a given name and a surname. One Irish interpretation is “a learned man; a scholar.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Irish interpretation is “a learned man; a scholar.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Irish.
How it developed
From Irish Ó Cléirigh (“descendant of the cleric”).
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1917. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Cleary through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 18
- 10 boys · 8 girls
- Most popular year
- 2013
- 8 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for girls is 8 in 2013. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 129 as a first name in 2020; 15,419 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Cleary’s family of names
Cleary has a related form in Clearea. Cleary has a related form in Clearee. Cleary has a related form in Clearey.
The ring: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 6
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Similar names
If you love Cleary, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
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McCarty is a surname from Irish.
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Callihan is a surname from Irish.
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“having dark features; the little dark one”
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“high”
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80% boys · 20% girls
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“from the valley meadow” · “from the dales; from the city in Texas”
74% boys · 26% girls