How common is the surname Scharf?

4,901 people in the United States had the surname Scharf in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 62,996 Americans. It ranked 6,864th of 162,253 surnames.

What ethnicity is the surname Scharf?

In the 2010 Census, 96% of people named Scharf identified as white (not Hispanic), and 1.4% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

Who is the most famous person named Scharf?

Adolf Schärf, Austrian politician, President of Austria 1957–1965 (1890–1965), followed by Walter Scharf.

Where is the surname Scharf most common?

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

Is the surname Scharf getting more or less common?

Less common. 4,904 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 4,901 in 2010, down 0.1%.

The surname Scharf

A surname, carried by 4,901 people in the United States.

1 syllable Soundex S610

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Scharf is more common than 95.8% of them.

Origin

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

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 4,901 people named Scharf in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 62,996 Americans. That is about the same as in 2000, when the Census counted 4,904.

#6,864

rank among US surnames

4,901

people in 2010

1.7

per 100,000 Americans

-0.1%

change since 2000 (was #6,398)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#6,858	Brauer	4,906	62,932
#6,861	Burford	4,905	62,945
#6,863	Wight	4,904	62,958
#6,864	Scharf	4,901	62,996

Who is named Scharf

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

96% of people named Scharf identified as white (not Hispanic), 1.4% as Hispanic or Latino (any race) and 1.3% as two or more races.

White (not Hispanic) 96%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 1.4%
Two or more races 1.3%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.9%
Black (not Hispanic) 0.3%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.3%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Scharfs

4 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

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, born 1979

Notable Scharfs come mostly from the United States (3) and Austria (1).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Scharf

Scharf has the Soundex code S610, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code S610.

Questions

Where does the surname Scharf come from?: South German and Jewish surname, from the adjective scharf (“sharp”) or its Yiddish equivalent שאַרף (sharf). Compare Sharp, Sharf, Sarff.
How common is the surname Scharf?: 4,901 people in the United States had the surname Scharf in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 62,996 Americans. It ranked 6,864th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Scharf?: In the 2010 Census, 96% of people named Scharf identified as white (not Hispanic), and 1.4% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
Who is the most famous person named Scharf?: Adolf Schärf, Austrian politician, President of Austria 1957–1965 (1890–1965), followed by Walter Scharf.
Where is the surname Scharf most common?: Wikidata records people named Scharf in the United States and Austria.
Is the surname Scharf getting more or less common?: Less common. 4,904 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 4,901 in 2010, down 0.1%.