# Scharf (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/scharf/  
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 | not recorded |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 4,901 |
| US rank (2010) | 6,864 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 62,996 people |
| Change since 2000 | -0.1% (4,904 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

South German and Jewish surname, from the adjective scharf (“sharp”) or its Yiddish equivalent שאַרף (sharf). Compare Sharp, Sharf, Sarff.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Scharf 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) | 96% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 0.3% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 1.4% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.9% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.3% |
| Two or more races | 1.3% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Scharf in the United States and Austria.

## People named Scharf

- Adolf Schärf, Austrian politician, President of Austria 1957–1965 (1890–1965)
- Walter Scharf, American composer and arranger (1910–2003)
- Kenny Scharf, American artist (born 1958)
- Amanda Somerville, American singer-songwriter

## Similar surnames

Scharff, Scherf, Sharp, Sharif, Scarpa, Sharifi, Shareef, Scarff, Saraf, Sharpe, Sarabia, Shreve.

## 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.