This most interesting and unusual surname has two possible origins. Firstly, it may be of Old Scandinavian origin, from the Old Norse "skali", hut, and "-erg", shieling; hence, it was a topographical name for a dweller by the shieling with a hut. Secondly, according to another source, the surname is of Old German origin, and is either a nickname for a person who could read and write at a time when education was the exception rather than the rule, or an occupational name for a scholar or a student training to be a priest, from the Old Germanic "schule", school. The surname is also found in Scotland, where it is first recorded in the early 16th Century. Variants of the surname include Scholar, Scholard, Scholer, Schollar, Scholler, Scollard, Scouler and Scoular. The name itself first appears in the early 14th Century (see below), while Henry Scoular witnessed a sasine in Scotland in 1525. George and Ralph Scouller of Huittoun, Scotland, were recorded there in 1665 in "The Commissariot Record of Lauder, Register of Testaments (1561 - 1800)", and William Scular appears in the parish of Cambusnethan in 1679. John Scouler (1804 - 1871) made a voyage to the Columbia River, during 1824 and 1825, and later became a Professor of Geology, Zoology and Botany, and was joint-founder of the "Glasgow Medical Journal". The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Adam del Scoler, which was dated 1332, in the "Subsidy Rolls of Lancashire", during the reign of King Edward 111, known as "The Father of the Navy", 1327 - 1377. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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