# True or false ... earliest known Irish surname is O’Clery **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 14, 2017, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-earliest-known-irish-surname-is-o-clery/777083 "2017-01-14T01:08:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr\_Quatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@Mr\_Quatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Quatro)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-earliest-known-irish-surname-is-o-clery/777083/1 "2017-01-14T01:08:11Z")
I won’t link to it, but I was wondering if this is true or false? > [@](#): > > The earliest known Irish surname is O’Clery (O Cleirigh); it’s the earliest known because it was written that the lord of Aidhne, Tigherneach Ua Cleirigh, died in County Galway back in the year 916 A.D. > > In fact, that Irish name may actually be the earliest surname recorded in all of Europe. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-earliest-known-irish-surname-is-o-clery/777083/2 "2017-01-14T05:54:27Z")
> [@Mr\_Quatro](#): > > I won’t link to it, but I was wondering if this is true or false? False, because (1) it’s probably a patronymic rather than a true surname, and (2) because we have loads of Irish patronymics going way back. He seems to be the first historical person of that particular surname / patronymic, though. [http://medievalscotland.org/kmo/AnnalsIndex/FamilyNames/O\_Clerigh.shtml](http://medievalscotland.org/kmo/AnnalsIndex/FamilyNames/O_Clerigh.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-earliest-known-irish-surname-is-o-clery/777083/3 "2017-01-14T07:51:30Z")
That seems obviously false. In Gaelic, the O’ prefix means ‘son of’. (Like the Mac prefix in Scotland, or the son or dottir suffixes in Scandinavian languages.) So if some person is named ‘son of Clery’, then clearly there was a person before himk named “Clery”. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-earliest-known-irish-surname-is-o-clery/777083/4 "2017-01-14T12:39:07Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > So if some person is named ‘son of Clery’, then clearly there was a person before himk named “Clery”. But wouldn’t the original Cleary have been a given name? Or maybe a job title, or other description? ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-earliest-known-irish-surname-is-o-clery/777083/5 "2017-01-14T15:07:48Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > That seems obviously false. > > In Gaelic, the O’ prefix means ‘son of’. (Like the Mac prefix in Scotland, or the son or dottir suffixes in Scandinavian languages.) That’s not completely accurate. Irish mac means son and Ó means grandson or descendant. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-earliest-known-irish-surname-is-o-clery/777083/6 "2017-01-14T16:58:05Z")
Old Irish _cléirech_, “cleric , one in orders (not necessarily an ordained priest)”—I’d guess descent from someone with this occupation or one of the many related words (_cléraige_, “member of a _clíar_, one of a poetic band.”) Since there were lots of categories of clergy in Ireland who were not celibate (e.g. abbots), and given the occasional habits of those who are celibate and adopted orphans and such, I suspect “descendant of clergy” was not particularly uncommon. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-earliest-known-irish-surname-is-o-clery/777083/7 "2017-01-14T18:43:49Z")
The Irish name "Og’ means “Young”. Og smash? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-earliest-known-irish-surname-is-o-clery/777083/8 "2017-01-14T18:55:04Z")
It’s certainly not “the earliest surname recorded in all of Europe”, because the ancient Romans had surnames. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-earliest-known-irish-surname-is-o-clery/777083/9 "2017-01-14T21:34:38Z")
The Wikipedia article’s section of [history of surnames](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surname#History) includes the factoid given by the OP. But there seems to be an abnormally high level of excluding previous examples for one reason or another, especially patronyms, which makes this claim very iffy IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-earliest-known-irish-surname-is-o-clery/777083/10 "2017-01-14T23:03:17Z")
The question really comes down to whether in this instance the name was “personal to holder” or a “fixed surname” passed from father to son. As Dr Drake says, if it was personal to holder, it was nothing remarkable as there are many earlier examples of patronymic and clan names. The last Pictish king Kenneth Mac Alpine comes to mind - there are Mac Alpines to this day, but in his case it was not a fixed surname. [Fr Woulfe](http://www.libraryireland.com/names/oc/o-clerigh.php) has this to say: > [@](#): > > Ó CLÉRIGH—I—O’Clery, O’Cleary, Clery, Cleary, Clarke, &c.; ‘descendant of Cléireach’ (cleric, clerk). This family derives its name and descent from an ancestor named Cléireach who flourished about the middle of the 9th century, and was the seventh in descent from the celebrated Guaire the Hospitable, King of Connacht. They were at one time the ruling family of Aidhne, co-extensive with the diocese of Kilmacduagh, but early in the 11th century they lost their power, and towards the close of the 13th, were finally driven out of Aidhne and dispersed to different parts of Ireland. One branch of the family settled in Tirawley, Co. Mayo, another in Co. Cavan, and a third in the neighbourhood of Kilkenny. From the Tirawley branch sprang the O’Clerys of Tirconnell, who succeeded the O’Scingins as poets and chroniclers to the O’Donnells, and became celebrated in Irish literary history as the compilers of the Annals of the Four Masters and other valuable works on Irish history and antiquities. Besides the patrimony of the O’Scingins which they inherited by marriage, the O’Clerys obtained large grants of land from the O’Donnells. Their residence was at the castle of Kilbarron, near Ballyshannon. The family is now very numerous throughout Ireland, but the name is often disguised, especially in Ulster, under the translated form of Clarke. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2017, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-earliest-known-irish-surname-is-o-clery/777083/11 "2017-01-15T15:26:14Z")
Pretty sure the SECOND earliest Irish surname, which came about in response to assertions like the OP, was “O’Really?”