MACGLADRIE: This surname, recorded in Edinburgh, is according to Woulfe, Irish Mac Gleadra, 'son of Gleadra,' an Ulster surname. Tho. Mc gledrie appears in the barronie of Machremore, and Patrick Mc gledrie in Yetton (Yettoun, parish of Sorbie), 1684 (Parish, p. 40, 55). Pronounced Macglethery in Galloway.

This name is found now and during the past century in the neighbourhood of Belfast, usually but not always with the prefix Mac and sometimes spelt MacGlathery. We know from The Tribes and Customs of Hy Many that it originated in Co. Galway, but there appears to have been a migration northwards, since it is now very rare in Connacht but extant in Co. Donegal. In Uí Maine the family was called Ó Gleadra as well as Mac Gleadra, and even in Ulster the O prefix was also sometimes used: an O Gleather is recorded in the Tyrone hearth money rolls of 1664. O'Donovan considered O'Gladdery and MacGladdery to be quite distinct.

The use of MacGlade, which is quite numerous in the northern counties, as an abbreviated form of MacGladery has been officially reported from Co. Down to the Registrar-General. That is a definite fact. Woulfe, however, makes MacGlade Mag Léid, and suggests that it is an Irish variant of the Scottish MacLeod.