From an Irish surname meaning 'descendant of the dark one,' or an English place name from a river name.
Cary derives from a cluster of related English and Welsh place names, most notably the River Cary in Somerset, England, whose name likely traces to a Celtic root meaning "pleasant stream" or possibly "fortified place." As a surname it spread across Britain and Ireland, and as a given name it followed the well-worn path of distinguished surnames migrating into Christian-name usage during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It can also be considered a variant spelling of Carey, a name with both Irish (Ó Ciardha, meaning "dark one") and English geographical origins.
No single figure did more to shape Cary as a given name than Archibald Alec Leach of Bristol, who reinvented himself as Cary Grant and became one of the defining male presences in Hollywood's golden age. From the 1930s through the 1960s, Grant embodied a particular ideal: effortlessly debonair, athletic beneath the tailoring, with a talent for comedy that coexisted with genuine dramatic depth. He appeared in films by Hitchcock, Hawks, and McCarey, and left behind a body of work — Bringing Up Baby, North by Northwest, The Philadelphia Story — that has never lost its shimmer.
His name became synonymous with a specific kind of elegance. The name is genuinely gender-flexible: Cary has been borne by men and women alike, including the novelist and poet Joyce Cary and the politician Cary Pepperworth. Its brevity and its soft, open vowel sound give it an effortless versatility. Used today, it carries a hint of old Hollywood refinement without feeling costume-y — a name that can age gracefully alongside almost any personality.