Sharp

Sharp is an English surname, sometimes also occurring in Scottish and Anglicized Irish contexts. It originated as a nickname for a person perceived as keen, astute, or sharp-witted, from the Old English adjective scearp (sharp). In many cases, the name may have described someone with a sharp tongue or sharp features, or it could have been a metonymic occupational name for a barber or shearer, whose tools are sharp.

The surname is especially common in Northern England and the Midlands. Variant forms include Sharpe, which was particularly widespread in Yorkshire and Lancashire. As a German surname, Sharp often represents Americanized spellings of Scharf, which shares the same original meaning.

Notable bearers include the Anglo-Irish satirist Richard Brinsley Sheridan's fictional character (Mrs. Malaprop references), though real bearers include Granville Sharp, an 18th-century English abolitionist and philanthropist, and Becky Sharp, the cunning protagonist of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair. The name also appears in place names such as Sharp, Missouri, a small unincorporated community in Ozark County.

• Meaning: Nickname for a sharp or keen person
• Origin: Old English scearp
• Type: Surname
• Usage Regions: England, Scotland, Germany (through Americanization)