Surname CLEARE
Surname CLEARE
THE LIGHT THAT BURNED THROUGH EVERY CHAIN
(Cleare, Clair, Clare, Clearey, Cleary, Cleere, St. Clair, Clear)
Y’all ain’t ready for this one right here.
This ain’t just a Family Island whisper.
This is one of the clearest names in Bahamian history.
One name, seven spellings, one bloodline.
This is the story of Cleare.
The Roots: “The Bright One”
The name Clair comes from the Old French word clair meaning clear, bright, or famous.
Norman knights carried it to England after 1066, and by the 1600s it appeared in many forms:
Clare, Clair, Cleare, Cleary, Cleere, Clear, Clearey.
In the Bahamas, every island pronounces it the same: CLEER.
The Irish form Cleary comes from the Gaelic Ó Cléirigh meaning descendant of the cleric.
So while the spellings differ, they all carry the same meaning, clarity, light, and knowledge.
The Early Settlers
When the Eleutheran Adventurers left Bermuda in 1648 seeking freedom of faith, they founded the first English settlement on Eleuthera.
Early lists do not record a Captain William Cleare among them, but the Cleare name soon appeared in Bahamian records as settlers spread through the islands.
By the 1700s, the name was established from Eleuthera to Long Island, carried by planters, sailors, and freedmen.
Chains That Couldn’t Dim the Light
After the American Revolution, Loyalists flooded the Bahamas around 1783.
They brought enslaved Africans with them, and with that came more Cleares, both Black and white.
Slave registers from the 1820s list the Cleare name across Exuma, Long Island, and Cat Island.
Then came August 1, 1838 Emancipation Day.
Across the registers it was written again and again:
Once property of a Cleare, now Cleare, free.
Once written as Clair, now signed as Clair, free.
Once called Clare, now Clare by choice.
They didn’t change the name to hide.
They kept it to remember.
Every spelling became both a scar and a crown.
The Builders and the Believers
After slavery, the Cleares helped rebuild the Bahamas from salt and stone.
In church records, on ship logs, and in Parliament notes, the light kept shining.
Henry Cleare pioneered road paving in Nassau and founded one of the first Black-owned construction companies in the country.
Rev. Rufus Cleare of Long Island helped establish Baptist churches across the southern islands.
Captain Cleare of Harbour Island served on early mailboats and inter-island routes.
When the PLP marched for suffrage in 1956, Cleares stood shoulder to shoulder, spelling it every way but carrying the same fire.
When Hurricane David crushed Long Island in 1979, Cleares rebuilt it from the ground up.
Same blood. Different vowels. One legacy.
Modern Brilliance
Today the name still shines across the islands.
Cleare in Exuma and Long Island.
Clair in Harbour Island and Spanish Wells.
Clare in Rock Sound, Eleuthera, and Cat Island.
Cleary and Clearey in Abaco and Grand Bahama.
From teachers and captains to doctors and builders, the Cleare light still burns strong.
You might meet Allen Cleare in Orange Creek fixing a boat or doing a plumbing contract or Dr. Kelli Clare healing eyes in Nassau.
Different spellings, same brightness.
The Legacy: One Name, One Flame
From the early settlers who sought freedom on Eleuthera,
to the freedmen who claimed that same name in 1838,
to the new generation writing it proudly on passports and college applications,
Cleare has always meant more than clear.
It means you can’t put this light out.
Every spelling—Cleare, Clair, Clare, Cleary, Cleere, Clear—is a lighthouse in Bahamian history.
Because in these islands, Cleare doesn’t just mean bright.
It means unbreakable.
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