This unusual and interesting name is of medieval English and Yorkshire origins. Recorded in several forms including Scurrah, Scurry, Scurrey, Skirrow, Scorey, and Scurrer, it is locational or topographical, and indicates residence by a "scora", an Old English pre 7th century or the Norse-Viking word meaning variously a boundary marker, a ravine, or possibly a group of rocks. The surname is well recorded in the modern spellings from the 16th century onwards, in the villages of North Yorkshire called Well, Wensley, and Bedale. There is a strong suggestion that it originated from the ancient village of Sharow near Ripon, formerly recorded as "Sharo". Sharow is believed to mean the "boundary rocks", although the village called "Skirlaugh" in the Yorkshire East Riding, may have a similar interpretation. This place has been given many spelling forms over the centuries including Scherle and Scirlai. The development of the surname in Yorkshire includes such spellings as Skerowe, William Skerowe of Richmond, Yorkshire being recorded in the "Wills List" of Chester in 1570. Recordings taken from local church registers include Maudilla Scara, who married Wilphridius Simpson at Farnham, Yorkshire, on January 14th 1594, and Christopher Scurrah, who was christened on the 9th August 1674, at Wensley, in the same county. The first recorded spelling of the family name is believed to be that of Thomas de Skyrhow, in the 1379 Poll Tax rolls for the county of Yorkshire, during the reign of King Richard 11, known as "Richard of Bordeaux", reigned 1377 - 1399.

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