Scourge

Apparently recorded as Scorg, Scourge, and the diminutive Scourgie, this is a rare surname. It is English or at least is recorded in England since at least Elizabethan times (1558 - 1603), but is probably of Olde Norse-Viking or Olde French origins. If so it either originates from the Norse word 'scoger' meaning a wood, and found in the village name of Scorborough in East Yorkshire, originally recorded in the famous Domesday Book of 1086 as 'Scorbuth'. This translates as the farm (or possibly barn) in the wood. If however it is from the French word 'escorgier' introduced into England in the 12th century, it described either a whip or a person who used a whip for purposes of punishment! We have not been able to find any recordings of the name in the early medieval period, although given enough time, we probably could. These early recordings might appear as (say) Jon le Scourge, in which case it would have been job descriptive for a jailier or similar, whilst Jon atte Scourge, would indicate somebody who lived by a wood. The recordings that we do have from surviving registers of the city of London include examples such as Rychard Skoorge. He married Elysabeth Whetelye at Christ Church Greyfriars, on May 1st 1583, whilst a century later George Scourge was a christening witness at St Dunstans in the East, Stepney, on May 28th 1692.