Breaking Out Of the Norm

"Neilly as recorded within the spellings of MacNealey, McNeilly, McNeillie, McNillie, McNeely, McNelly, Mcneely, Neilly, Neeley, Nealey, and Neely, derives from the famous clan name of 'Mac Conghaile'. The derivation is from the traditional Gaelic pre 10th century 'cu' meaning 'hound'. Broadly the interpretation is 'the son of the descendant of the hound'. The latter was probably a nickname for a chieftain who possessed the qualities related to that animal, i.e. loyalty, speed, tenacity, and strength." 

Most Irish surnames have developed a good range of variant forms, and this is often no exception. The name is (in all its forms) most associated now with County Antrim and County Tyrone, although it's been claimed that the descent could also be from a Galway sept formerly 'Mac Conghaola', the name translation being an equivalent . The changes in spelling from the Gaelic to English are most liable for the variant forms, and samples of these include Benjamin Neely, christened at Clogher, County Tyrone, on July 17th 1772, and George Neilly, who together with his wife Mary, was a witness at an equivalent village on September 27th 1792. Other recordings include William and Mary McNealey, whose daughter Jane was christened at Drumglass, County Tyrone, on March 3rd 1832, and interestingly a Mary Nealy, aged eighteen, is numbered amongst the people fleeing Irish 'Potato Famine', who joined the ship 'Rappahannock of Liverpool', bound for brand spanking new York, and who collected passengers at Londonderry, on June 12th 1846. the primary recorded spelling of the surname is shown to be that of John McNeely, which was dated October 28th 1686. This was during the reign of King James 11, of England, 'the last Roman Catholic king', 1685 - 1689. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop", often resulting in astonishing variants of the first spelling.