Recorded in various spellings including Scarborough, Scarbrow, Scarbarrow, and the dialectal Scarboro, this is a surname of English origins. It is medieval and locational from the famous town of Scarborough, on the east coast of England and in the county of North Yorkshire. In Victorian times the town was known as the "Queen of the Coast" for the splendour of its architecture, however it was shelled by the German Fleet in 1915, which destroyed the castle and since then the town has struggled to survive. The surname being a locational name is usually a "from" name. That is to say a name which was originally given for easy identification, to a person who had left Scarborough, and moved somewhere else. That could be close by, or as in the recording of Henry de Scardeburgh in 1293, from the adjoining county of Lincoln, whilst Johannes de Scardeburgh is recorded in the Poll Tax rolls for the county of Yorkshire in 1379. There is some dispute as to the meaning of the name but according to the Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names it is named after a Viking called Skardi in the year 965 a.d. However it seems that Skardi means hair lipped, which could also be a description of Scarborough Bay. Later examples of the surname recording from the diocese of Greater London include in 1571 Stephen Scarborough, who married Elizabeth Eaton at St Antholins church, and Dennis Scarbarrow who was christened at St Dionis Backchurch, in 1646.

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