# Scarff (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/scarff/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | Norse |
| Type | nickname, from a description or nickname of an ancestor |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 561 |
| US rank (2010) | 39,212 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 550,349 people |
| Change since 2000 | -0.4% (563 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From northern Middle English scarfe (“cormorant”), itself from Old Norse skarfr (compare Icelandic skarfur (“cormorant”)), either a nickname for someone who resembled a cormorant or a byname from Old Norse Skarfi.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Scarff in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 97% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 0.0% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 0.9% |

## Similar surnames

Scharf, Scharff, Scarpa, Scherf, Saraf, Sharp, Sharpe, Sarabia, Shreve, Saravia, Sheriff, Sharif.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.