John de lare in record, 1394 (Cambus., 17). Sir John Yare, chaplain of the altar of St. Michael in Stirling in 1471, was present at the redemption of the lands of Easter Leckie in the following year (Sc. Ant., X, p. 62; SBR.). Thomas Yar or Yare was a prominent merchant burgess of Edinburgh, 1473 (ALHT., I, p. lviii), and had safe conducts granted him to travel in England in 1473 and 1484 (Bain, IV, 1407, 1411, 1503). In 1480-81 there is record of a grant "octo bovatis terrarum de Halys" in the regality of Musselburgh confirmed to Thomas ȝhare or Yhar and his wife (RD., p. 371), John of Yair was deacon of craft in Stirling, 1522 (SBR., p. 275), Jacobus Yair, a charter witness in Perth, 1523 (Scon, p. 203), John Yair, son to umquhile James Yair, had a feu of the lands of Balquhormok in 1585 (ibid., p. 225), David lair is recorded as a chapman in 1592 (Sc. Ant., VI p. 168), and William Zair was burgess and guild brother of Glasgow, 1621 (Burgesses). Yhar 1485, Zar and Zayr 1511. From Yair in Selkirk parish, Selkirkshire.

— The Surnames of Scotland (1946) by George Fraser Black (1866-1948)

Although the earliest recorded use of the surname dates to Scotland in the 14th or 15th century, it is likely that all or most Yares have ancestors in Westmorland, England.