surnames.ie

Irish surname · 60th most common in 1911

O'Leary

Also spelt Leary

O'Leary is the English form of Ó Laoghaire, 'descendant of Laoghaire', a name linked to the Old Irish word for a calf. The family belonged to the Corca Laoighdhe of west Cork, first around Rosscarbery and later in Uíbh Laoghaire (Iveleary), the parish of Inchigeelagh west of Macroom.

Irish Ó Laoghaire · Ó LaoireIrish Ua LaoghaireIrish Ní Laoghaire
1901 census
10,110
#57 · 23 per 10,000
1911 census
9,833
#60 · 22 per 10,000
1926 census
9,816
#41 · 33 per 10,000
Most numerous
Cork
Highest share: Cork

Language & meaning

Meaning & Irish forms

Gaelic Gaelic Irish: the surname of a ruling family of the Corca Laoighdhe in south-west Cork, later lords of Uíbh Laoghaire under the MacCarthys.[1][2][3]

Ó Laoghaire
Modern spelling: Ó Laoire
“descendant of Laoghaire”[1][4][2]
Woulfe's headword, which he renders O'Leary and Leary. The Gaois dataset gives Ó Laoire as the standard modern spelling, with Ó Laoghaire as an accepted alternative.
Ua Laoghaire
“descendant of Laoghaire”[5]
The older form of the prefix, used for example by the writer Peadar Ua Laoghaire.
Ní Laoghaire
“daughter of a descendant of Laoghaire”[6]
The form used by women, as in the name of the Cork poet Máire Bhuí Ní Laoghaire.

The name is built on the personal name Laoghaire, usually explained as “calf-keeper or calf-herd”. Woulfe glosses the name as 'calf-keeper'. Wiktionary traces it to Old Irish Lóegaire, built from lóeg, 'calf', and the agent ending -aire. The same personal name gave Dún Laoghaire its name, from a 5th-century high king, but that place has no link with the O'Leary family.[1][7][2]

Pronunciation

O'Leary: oh-LEER-ee

Ó Laoghaire: oh LAY-ruh (Munster) /oː ˈl̪ˠeːɾʲə/[8][9]

Place

Where the O'Learys lived

How common the name was in each county, as a share of the population, in the three surviving full censuses of Ireland. Use the buttons to compare years.

Donegal: 0.1 per 10,000 (1 people) Waterford: 10.8 per 10,000 (89 people) Dublin: 12 per 10,000 (575 people) Kilkenny: 6.4 per 10,000 (48 people) Carlow: 16 per 10,000 (58 people) Limerick: 17.4 per 10,000 (250 people) Louth: 1.7 per 10,000 (11 people) Tipperary: 9 per 10,000 (137 people) Roscommon: 3.7 per 10,000 (35 people) Meath: 0.8 per 10,000 (5 people) Wicklow: 15 per 10,000 (91 people) Cavan: 1.6 per 10,000 (15 people) Cork: 135.3 per 10,000 (5,320 people) Clare: 29.8 per 10,000 (311 people) Galway: 3.8 per 10,000 (69 people) Mayo: 0.6 per 10,000 (12 people) Sligo: 1.6 per 10,000 (13 people) Leitrim: 0.2 per 10,000 (1 people) Offaly: 3 per 10,000 (17 people) Laois: 6.6 per 10,000 (36 people) Kildare: 3.3 per 10,000 (22 people) Kerry: 102 per 10,000 (1,630 people) Monaghan: 7.5 per 10,000 (54 people) Wexford: 92.7 per 10,000 (949 people) Longford: 1.6 per 10,000 (7 people) Westmeath: 2.5 per 10,000 (15 people) Tyrone: 0.2 per 10,000 (3 people) Antrim: 0.6 per 10,000 (28 people) Armagh: 0.1 per 10,000 (1 people) Fermanagh: 0.7 per 10,000 (4 people) Londonderry: 0.2 per 10,000 (3 people) Down: 0.8 per 10,000 (23 people)
fewerup to 142 per 10,000

Share of each county's census population. 1926 covers the 26 counties of the Irish Free State only.

Highest concentration · 1911

Cork

135 per 10,000

5,320 O'Learys · 6.04× the national share

Highest share, 1911

  1. Cork 135
  2. Kerry 102
  3. Wexford 93
  4. Clare 30
  5. Limerick 17
  6. Carlow 16
  7. Wicklow 15
  8. Dublin 12

Per 10,000 residents. A concentration index above 1 means the name was commoner there than nationally.

County figures as a table
County190119111926Per 10k 1901Per 10k 1911Per 10k 1926
Antrim2828—11—
Armagh01—00—
Carlow595864161619
Cavan261518322
Clare300311282273030
Cork5,5215,3205,174138135142
Donegal3110001
Down3023—11—
Dublin463575752111215
Fermanagh64—11—
Galway666985345
Kerry1,7941,6301,539108102103
Kildare272237436
Kilkenny624860869
Laois333645679
Leitrim118001
Limerick247250292171721
Londonderry13—00—
Longford247405210
Louth71120123
Mayo21214011
Meath1056111
Monaghan7354591089
Offaly131735237
Roscommon433541445
Sligo14137221
Tipperary1501371439910
Tyrone33—00—
Waterford1198996141112
Westmeath251530435
Wexford911949873889392
Wicklow49918681515

Local strongholds in 1911

District Electoral Divisions (300+ residents) where O'Learys made up the largest share of the population. In Bealanagarry, Co. Cork, about one resident in 6 was a O'Leary.

DEDCountyO'LearysShare
BealanagarryCork76 16.3%
InchigeelaghCork110 15.8%
BealanagearyCork68 9.5%
KillarneyKerry48 9.3%
KealkillCork63 9.2%
CleanrathCork37 8.6%
GlengarriffCork74 7.3%
DouceCork47 7.2%

Origins

Septs & territories

Many Irish surnames were adopted independently by unrelated families. These are the distinct O'Leary lineages described in the sources.

A surname can point you towards a place. On its own, it cannot establish a pedigree.

Ó Laoghaire of Corca Laoighdhe (Uíbh Laoghaire)

First the district around Rosscarbery; later Uíbh Laoghaire (Iveleary), the country between Macroom and Inchigeelagh · Cork

Woulfe places the family among the Corca Laoighdhe, chiefs at first of the land about Rosscarbery in west Cork. They later moved north to the parish of Inchigeelagh and held the district between there and Macroom as lords under the MacCarthys, with their chief seat at Carrignacurra. Woulfe dates the move to around the Anglo-Norman invasion, while Wikipedia places it after about 1300.[1][2][10]

Ó Laoghaire of Cineál Laoghaire

Kerry and north-west Cork · Kerry, Cork

Wikipedia notes that the name also appears in Cineál Laoghaire, a branch of the Eóganacht dynasty that came to dominate Munster, and that it is unrelated to the Corca Laoighdhe family. Because both lines settled in the same part of Munster, it says, tracing any one O'Leary family's descent can be difficult.[2]

The name over time

History

A Corca Laoighdhe family at Ross

The O'Learys belonged to the Corca Laoighdhe, the people who ruled much of Munster before the rise of the Eóganacht in the 7th century and whose later heartland was the coast of south-west Cork. Their earliest territory lay around Ros Ó gCairbre, now Rosscarbery, where Wikipedia describes them as hereditary lords. An entry in the Annals of Inisfallen for the death of St Fachtna in 600 already ties the name to Ross, and by the 12th century the family were recognised wardens of Fachtna's monastery and school there.[2][3][1]

Chiefs of Tuath Ruis

The Book of Lecan, compiled between about 1397 and 1418, names O'Leary as the hereditary chieftain of Tuath Ruis, the district of Ross, and lists the families who served under him. Among them are the Ó Laidid and Ó hUainidi. Woulfe confirms the link from the other side: he describes the west Cork Ó Loididh (Luddy) as followers of O'Leary, and one branch of Ó hUainidhe (Hooney or Green) as followers of Ó Laoghaire of Corca Laoighdhe.[2][11][12]

The move to Uíbh Laoghaire

At some point the family left the coast and settled in the upper Lee valley west of Macroom. Woulfe puts this around the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion; Wikipedia says the clan was pushed north from about 1300 onwards. The new territory took the family's name, Uíbh Laoghaire, anglicised Iveleary. There the O'Learys held the district between Macroom and Inchigeelagh under the MacCarthy lords of Muskerry, who gave them the white wand of office. Wikipedia adds that they and the O'Mahonys were the only freeholders in Muskerry apart from the MacCarthys.[1][2][13]

Castles on the Lee

The family built three tower houses near Inchigeelagh, at Carrignacurra, Carrignaneela and Dromcarra. Only Carrignacurra still stands: a four-storey tower on a rock by the south bank of the Lee, guarding a ford on the old road between Macroom and Dunmanway. Woulfe calls it the residence of the head of the family. O'Sullivan Beare captured it in 1602. After 1641 it was forfeited and restored to the MacCarthys, with the O'Learys staying on as their tenants, and in 1703 it passed with the forfeited Clancarty estates to the Hollow Sword Blade Company.[10][1][2]

War, attainder and dispersal

Auliffe O'Leary sided with Hugh O'Neill from the start of the Nine Years' War. The O'Leary chiefs were later attainted, but Wikipedia notes that their remote country made the confiscation hard to enforce until the Cromwellian period. Woulfe lists sixteen O'Learys attainted in 1642, among them Connor of Carrignacurra and Auliff of Cunnowley. Wikipedia names Donal MacArt O'Leary, who died in 1657, as the last O'Leary lord under the old Gaelic order. The family scattered further after the Williamite War, and Woulfe found the name very common across Munster.[2][1]

Poets and writers of Iveleary

The family's name is bound up with Irish-language literature. Art Ó Laoghaire, a captain in the Austrian Hungarian Hussars, was shot near Macroom in 1773 after a feud with the magistrate Abraham Morris. His widow, Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill, composed Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire, a lament often ranked among the greatest Irish poems of its century. Máire Bhuí Ní Laoghaire (1774–c.1848), an oral poet in Munster Irish, is buried at Inchigeelagh. Peadar Ua Laoghaire, a leading figure in the revival of Irish prose, was descended from the Carrignacurra branch.[8][14][6][13][5]

Places linked to the name

  • Rosscarbery (Ros Ó gCairbre), Co. Cork — The family's earliest territory, where they were hereditary lords and wardens of St Fachtna's monastery.[1][2]
  • Inchigeelagh (Inse Geimhleach), Co. Cork — Parish at the heart of Uíbh Laoghaire, the O'Leary country from the Middle Ages.[1][13]
  • Carrignacurra Castle, Co. Cork — The chief seat of the O'Learys, a tower house by a ford on the Lee about a mile east of Inchigeelagh.[10][1]
  • Macroom, Co. Cork — Market town at one end of the O'Leary lordship, which Woulfe describes as running from Macroom to Inchigeelagh.[1]

Everyday lives

The O'Learys in the census

Who the O'Learys were in the 1901 and 1911 censuses (and 1926 where recorded), set against everyone in Ireland in the same census.

O'Learys All of Ireland Ireland's figure marked on the O'Leary bar

Religion, 1911

Catholic +25.4 points vs Ireland
O'Learys 99.0%
All of Ireland 73.6%
Church of Ireland −12.3 points vs Ireland
O'Learys 0.9%
All of Ireland 13.2%
Presbyterian −10.0 points vs Ireland
O'Learys 0.1%
All of Ireland 10.1%
Methodist & other −3.1 points vs Ireland
O'Learys 0.0%
All of Ireland 3.1%

Irish language

Spoke Irish, 1901 +17.8 points vs Ireland
O'Learys 33.1%
All of Ireland 15.3%
Spoke Irish, 1911 +15.4 points vs Ireland
O'Learys 28.9%
All of Ireland 13.5%
Spoke Irish, 1926 · 26 counties +4.7 points vs Ireland
O'Learys 18.2%
All of Ireland 13.5%

69 O'Learys spoke Irish only in 1901.

Reading & writing

Could read and write, 1901 · aged 15+ about the same as Ireland
O'Learys 80.1%
All of Ireland 80.4%
Could read and write, 1911 · aged 15+ +0.6 points vs Ireland
O'Learys 86.4%
All of Ireland 85.8%

Family life, 1911

Household size · 1,922 households higher than Ireland
O'Learys 5.07
All of Ireland 4.83
Children born per mother · women 45–59 higher than Ireland
O'Learys 7.06
All of Ireland 6.46
Children still living about the same as Ireland
O'Learys 79.6%
All of Ireland 79.8%

Commonest occupations

Adults aged 15+, 1901 and 1911 combined.

Farmer1,538
Farmer's son922
Farmer's daughter520
Agricultural labourer503
General labourer398
Farm servant380
Labourer266
Domestic servant233
House keeper209
Farm labourer205

Born outside Ireland

0.6% of O'Learys in 1911 gave a birthplace outside Ireland.

England39
United States11
Scotland4
Wales2
India1

Median age: 23 in 1901, 26 in 1911.

Given names

First names among the O'Learys

Men and boys

  1. John2,253
  2. Patrick1,383
  3. Michael1,181
  4. Daniel1,077
  5. Denis930
  6. Timothy922
  7. James920
  8. Jeremiah723
  9. Thomas570
  10. Cornelius495

Women and girls

  1. Mary2,670
  2. Margaret1,029
  3. Ellen932
  4. Bridget804
  5. Julia637
  6. Kate629
  7. Catherine516
  8. Hannah495
  9. Annie407
  10. Nora392

All three censuses combined. Top five in 1926: John, Patrick, Michael, Daniel, James; Mary, Margaret, Ellen, Bridget, Julia.

Spellings

Spellings

This page combines the spellings below, which census enumerators and families used for the same name.

Spelling190119111926Records
O'Leary4,4505,5137,335Search
Leary5,6604,3202,481Search

Related forms

  • Leary — The form without the O prefix, which Woulfe lists alongside O'Leary.[1]
  • Ó Laoire — The modern standard Irish spelling, with the silent gh dropped.[4][2]
  • O'Learie — The spelling under which Burke's General Armory records one set of O'Leary arms.[15]
  • MacLeary, MacCleary — A different name. Woulfe gives these as forms of Mac Giolla Arraith, an old Sligo family, not of Ó Laoghaire.[16]

Diaspora

The O'Learys abroad

Emigration carried the name worldwide. In the 2010 United States census:

SpellingPeopleUS rank
O'Leary22,3291607th
Leary15,5052351st

Source: US Census Bureau, 2010 surname file (public domain).

Heraldry

Is there a O'Leary coat of arms?

There is no single O'Leary crest; arms belonged to particular families. Burke's General Armory records arms under 'O'Learie': on silver, a red lion walking in the lower part and, above, a black three-masted ship under sail flying the flag of St George, with the motto 'Laidir ise lear Righ', which Burke translates as 'Strong is the King of the Sea' or 'Leary is powerful'. Burke records different arms, a red talbot above a boar, from a 1637 funeral entry for Donogh O'Leary of Dromcar, Co. Cork.[15][2]

Websites selling a single “O'Leary family crest” are selling a design, not an inheritance. Arms in Ireland belonged to individuals and their heirs, and the Chief Herald of Ireland still grants arms that way today.

People

Notable people named O'Leary

  • Arthur O'Leary (1729–1802)
    Capuchin friar from west Cork, a preacher and writer who argued for religious toleration.
  • Art Ó Laoghaire (1746–1773)
    Officer in Austria's Hungarian Hussars whose killing inspired the lament Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire.
  • Máire Bhuí Ní Laoghaire (1774–c.1848)
    Cork poet who composed in Munster Irish within the oral tradition.
  • Daniel Florence O'Leary (1801–1854)
    Cork-born general and aide-de-camp to Simón Bolívar in South America.
  • John O'Leary (1830–1907)
    Leading Fenian, imprisoned in England for his part in the Irish Republican Brotherhood.
  • Ellen O'Leary (1831–1889)
    Poet in sympathy with the Fenian movement, sister of John O'Leary.
  • Peadar Ua Laoghaire (1839–1920)
    Priest and writer, a founding figure of modern prose in Irish.
  • Michael John O'Leary (1890–1961)
    Irish Guards soldier from Inchigeelagh awarded the Victoria Cross for Cuinchy in 1915.
  • Hazel R. O'Leary (born 1937)
    US Secretary of Energy 1993–1997, the first woman and first African American in the post.
  • Olivia O'Leary (born 1949)
    Irish journalist, writer and current affairs presenter.
  • David O'Leary (born 1958)
    Arsenal defender with a club-record 722 appearances, capped 68 times for Ireland.
  • Michael O'Leary (born 1961)
    Irish businessman, group chief executive of the airline Ryanair.

Questions

Questions about the O'Leary name

Is O'Leary an Irish surname?

Yes. O'Leary is the anglicised form of the Gaelic Ó Laoghaire, 'descendant of Laoghaire'. The family belonged to the Corca Laoighdhe of west Cork, first around Rosscarbery and later in Uíbh Laoghaire around Inchigeelagh, where they held land under the MacCarthys. Woulfe found the name very common throughout Munster.[1][2]

What is O'Leary in Irish?

The traditional form is Ó Laoghaire, and the modern standard spelling is Ó Laoire, which drops the silent gh. A woman uses Ní Laoghaire or Ní Laoire. The writer Peadar Ua Laoghaire used the older prefix Ua, which means the same thing.[1][4][5][6]

What does the name O'Leary mean?

It means 'descendant of Laoghaire'. Woulfe glosses Laoghaire as 'calf-keeper', and Wiktionary derives it from Old Irish Lóegaire, made from lóeg, 'calf', with an ending that marks a person who does something. It was a common early personal name, also borne by the 5th-century king after whom Dún Laoghaire is named.[1][7][2]

How do you pronounce O'Leary?

In English it is 'oh-LEER-ee', with the stress on the second syllable; Wiktionary transcribes it /oʊ ˈle.ɹi/. In Munster Irish, Ó Laoghaire is said roughly 'oh LAY-ruh', since the gh is silent, as the transcription of Art Ó Laoghaire's name on Wikipedia shows.[17][8][9]

Is Dún Laoghaire named after the O'Learys?

No. Wikipedia notes that the Dublin harbour town takes its name from Lóegaire mac Néill, a 5th-century high king, and has no connection with the O'Leary family of Cork. The two simply share the same old personal name, Laoghaire.[2]

Is there an O'Leary family crest or coat of arms?

Not one shared by everyone of the name. Burke's General Armory records arms under 'O'Learie', showing a lion below a three-masted ship flying the St George flag, with the motto 'Laidir ise lear Righ'. He records different arms for Donogh O'Leary of Dromcar, Co. Cork, from 1637. Each belonged to a particular family.[15]

Are O'Leary and MacLeary the same name?

No. O'Leary comes from Ó Laoghaire of Cork. Woulfe gives MacLeary and MacCleary as English forms of Mac Giolla Arraith, an old Sligo family whose head was sometimes chief of the barony of Leyny. The similar spelling is a coincidence of anglicisation.[1][16]

Where in Ireland is the O'Leary surname most common?

In the 1911 census the largest numbers of O'Learys lived in Cork (5,320), Kerry (1,630), Wexford (949). Relative to population, the name was most concentrated in Cork (135 per 10,000), Kerry (102 per 10,000), Wexford (93 per 10,000).

How common was the O'Leary surname in Ireland?

9,833 people were recorded as O'Leary or Leary in the 1911 census of Ireland, making it the 60th most common surname. That is roughly 0.2% of the population, or 1 person in 446.

Looking for a O'Leary ancestor?

Search every O'Leary household in the 1901, 1911 and 1926 censuses, with free images of the original forms.

Search records on irishcensus.com

Evidence

Sources

  1. Patrick Woulfe, Ó Laoghaire, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
  2. Wikipedia, O'Leary (2026)
  3. Wikipedia, Corcu Loígde (2026)
  4. Gaois research group, Dublin City University, Sloinnte: Irish surnames database (version 2) (2022). Cluster 'Laoire': Ó Laoire, alternative Ó Laoghaire; English O'Leary.
  5. Wikipedia, Peadar Ua Laoghaire (2026)
  6. Wikipedia, Máire Bhuí Ní Laoghaire (2026)
  7. Wiktionary, Lóegaire
  8. Wikipedia, Art Ó Laoghaire (2026)
  9. Wiktionary, Laoghaire
  10. Wikipedia, Carrignacurra Castle (2026)
  11. Patrick Woulfe, Ó Loididh, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
  12. Patrick Woulfe, Ó hUainidhe, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
  13. Wikipedia, Inchigeelagh (2026)
  14. Wikipedia, Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire (2026)
  15. Sir Bernard Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales (1884). Entries 'O'Learie' and 'O'Leary (Dromcar, co. Cork)'.
  16. Patrick Woulfe, Mac Giolla Arraith, in Irish Names and Surnames (1923)
  17. Wiktionary, O'Leary
  18. Census of Ireland 1901 and 1911, and Census of Population 1926, National Archives of Ireland. Counts compiled by surnames.ie from the irishcensus.com transcription (dataset 20260831130351). 1926 data © National Archives of Ireland, CC BY 4.0.

How we compile these figures: methodology.