For the city in Grays Harbor County, Washington, United States, see McCleary, Washington.
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 GaelicMac Cléirigh which means Son of the Cleric (or Son of the Priest).
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.
This page lists people with the surnameMcCleary. If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.