From Latin 'clarus' meaning bright or clear; also a short form of Clarence or the herb clary sage.
Clary sits at the intersection of two separate etymological streams that have blended pleasantly over the centuries. As a given name, it originated as a diminutive of Clara or Clarissa, both from the Latin "clarus" — clear, bright, famous — a root that produced an entire family of luminous names popular from the medieval period onward. Saint Clare of Assisi, the founder of the Poor Clares and close companion of Saint Francis, gave the Latin root its greatest medieval boost, and diminutive forms like Clary circulated in the centuries that followed.
But Clary is also the name of an herb — clary sage, Salvia sclarea — a plant with a long history in European herbalism, cooking, and perfumery. Its name derives from the Latin "sclarea" or possibly from "clarus" as well, given the plant's historical use as an eyewash to "clarify" vision. This botanical association gives the name an earthy, aromatic dimension that purely etymological accounts miss.
In the revival of herb and nature names that has marked naming trends since the early 2000s, Clary fits naturally alongside Sage, Rue, and Briar. In literature, the name appears in Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, where Arabella Strange's maid is named Clary — a small but charming appearance in one of the great English novels of the early twenty-first century. Today Clary reads as a fresh alternative to Clara or Claire, with more texture and a hint of something wild-grown and aromatic beneath its brightness.