Given name & surname
Leary
“a cattle herder”
Leary is used as a given name and a surname. One Irish interpretation is “a cattle herder.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Irish interpretation is “a cattle herder.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Irish.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1912. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Leary through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 210
- 194 boys · 16 girls
- Most popular year
- 1926
- 11 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 boys is 5 in 1961. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 265 as a first name in 2020; 14,558 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.
Leary’s family of names
Leary has a related form in Learie. Leary has a related form in Laoghaire. Leary has a related form in Learea.
Inner ring: spellings · outer: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 7
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 1
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
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