Clarke
Ó Cléirigh · descendant of the clerk
Clarke is Ó Cléirigh in Irish, said oh KLAY-ree, and means descendant of the clerk.
Cléireach means a clerk or a cleric, and like a smith there was one in every parish, so the translation into Clarke was easy and happened independently all over the country. Mícheál Ó Cléirigh led the Four Masters, who wrote the annals that preserve much of what is known of early Ireland. But Clark is among the commonest surnames in England too, so a Clarke here may have no Ó Cléirigh behind the name at all.
How it changes
- A man: Ó Cléirigh
- His daughter: Ní Chléirigh
- A woman who married into it: Bean Uí Chléirigh
- The family together: Uí Chléirigh
Where it comes from
Donegal and Galway, and anywhere a clerk was written down
Also spelt
Clarke, Cleary, O’Cleary, Clerkin
A name, not a pedigree
This is where the name came from, which is not the same as where you came from. Names were translated, anglicised, taken on by tenants and neighbours, and carried in by settlers who were no relation to the family that started them. To follow your own line, the 1901 and 1911 censuses are free and searchable, and give the county each person was born in.