Through the centuries, the Menary name has been spelled an amazing number of ways. A quick look through a variety of early records, such as birth, marriage, and death records, enumeration lists, censuses and land records have unearthed the following spellings:

Manara, Manaray, Manarey, Manarie, Manary, Manaury, Maneary, Manery, Manerye, Mannarye, Mannerie, Mannery, Mannoury, Mannowry, Manory, Manorye, Manourey, Manoury, Manray, Manry, Menairry, Menairy, Menarais, Menaree, Menary, Menarry, Menerai, Meneray, Meneret, Menerey, Menery, Minarie, Minary, Minearry, Mineerey, Mineray, Minery, Minnary, Monarey , Munnary, M’Nary, McNary, McNarry, McNeery, and a few more to boot.

The rate of illiteracy was high before about the mid-1800s, so a great percentage of people would not have been able to read and write and therefore relied on a clerk or an enumerator’s spelling of their surname We can be sure the name phonetically sounded like either “MEN-air-ee” or “Men-AIR-ee”, or else a slight change in diction that made the first syllable sound like “Men”, “Min”, or “Man”.

McNary is a bit more puzzling. People whose surname was rendered McNary, often in County Down or sometimes in Tyrone, would appear in another later record as M’Nary, Menary or Manary. Were they from the same family? An important factor to remember is that in Ireland, when pronouncing a surname beginning with Mac/Mc, the letter “c” is often not enunciated. This could lead to the phonetic pronunciations as mentioned in the paragraph above. As it happens, there are DNA links between these groups who once went by McNary and the Armagh families who went mostly by Menary. As for the meaning of the surname, without being certain of the ethnic origin, it’s difficult to say.

By the late 1800s, with the advent of higher literacy, the spelling was starting to standardize to mostly Menary, but also Manary, Minary, Manery, or Menery (or Menerey), especially outside of the British Isles. There are family groups with all of these spellings in the present, although Menary and Manary are the most common.

Now that we have DNA testing, Ancestry DNA matches have shown most of these branches with different spelling match each other genetically, so this strongly suggests all the variations of the surname pertain to the present Manary/Manary group who emigrated from or who are still in Northern Ireland. Added to this is the fact that original records show variations in spelling within the same family groups. In the early First Armagh Presbyterian Church records, for instance, members of the family were transcribed as McNarry and McNair, as well as Menary. Appearing in the Manor Court Rolls of 1714 were James Munary and William Mannery in Eglish Parish and James McNare who lived at Lislea in Lisnadill Parish.

Where did our surname originate? A search through the internet for the meaning and origin of the name Manary, Menary or other variation brings up a bewildering variety of origins. Most are quoting Irish surname origin experts such as Edward MacLysaght, Patrick Woulfe, and John O’Hart, who wrote books on the subject in the early part of the 20th century. These authors were mainly concerned with the ancient Irish Gaelic family surnames, and suggested that the name Menary et al originated with such Gaelic clan names as MacNaradhaigh or MacIneirghe. Since family origins in general are so complex, there could be elements of truth in this going back into the very distant past, and might even be the origin of the surname McNary. No doubt the origins of both our name and our clan is complex and has many elements that eventually intermeshed and become the modern family as it is now.

Contributed by Barbara MacPherson