The English surname Scarborough is an habitational name from Scarborough on the coast of North Yorkshire, so named from the Old Norse byname Skarði and the Old Norse term borg meaning “ a fortress, or a fortified town.” Early records of the name include Henry de Scardeburgh in 1293 in Lincolnshire, and Johannes de Scardeburgh is recorded in the Poll Tax rolls for the county of Yorkshire in 1379. The name is first recorded in the New World in 1620 when Edmund Scarborough arrived in Virginia. Today there are approximately 12,000 bearers of the name Scarborough living in the United States.