Frequency: (4733)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
1. Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Gadhra ‘descendant of Gadhra’ (see O’Gara). See also McGeary.
2. English: from a personal name derived from Germanic gēr, gār ‘spear’, a short form of any of various compound names with this as a first element (see, for example Garrett).
3. English: nickname for a wayward or capricious person, from Middle English ge(a)ry ‘fickle’, ‘changeable’, ‘passionate’ (a derivative of gere ‘fit of passion’, apparently a Scandinavian borrowing).
4. Possibly an altered spelling of German Gehring or Gehrig.
FOREBEARS: Most present-day Irish bearers of the name Geary and its variants and derivatives are descended from a single 10thcentury ancestor, a nephew of Eadhra, who founded the family O’Hara in Connacht. The family is now spread more widely.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
