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"Clare" is the name of a county in Ireland, and the suffix "lock" suggests one who lived by an enclosure, or had charge of a barrier in a river. You mentioned that your relative may have been of French or Irish ethnicity -- the "Clair" spelling may have been a French rendering of the Irish "Clare", suggesting that his given name was taken from an Irish surname of County Clare.

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Alternately, the name may have been taken from a surname meaning "one with bright hair".

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There is the similar, known surname of "Clearlock", which suggests one who literally came from the "clear lock" -- clear, or bright, water at the river lock.

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-- Nanaea