A common name coming literally from the post of 'clerk', referring to a scribe, secretary or cleric. Notable families are the shoe-making Clarks of Kilmarnock, the thread-manufacturing Clarks of Paisley and the Clerk baronets of Penicuik, whose family includes the mathematician James Clerk Maxwell
(1831-79
). Other notable members of the family are actor Jameson Clark
(1907-84), racing driver Jim Clark
(1936-68), stained-glass artist John K. Clark
(b.1957) and dancer Michael Clark
(b.1962).
Cleary, Clearey and MacCleary are the Irish forms, closely related to the Gaelic form Cleireach.
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