Scatchard Family History

Perhaps a derivative of Middle English scache ‘scaffolding pole’ (Old French eschace ‘stilt crutch wooden leg’) + the uncomplimentary suffix -ard. It could have been a nickname for someone with long legs or perhaps a wooden leg (which is the suggested sense in Morlet Dictionnaire of the related French surname Eschasseriaux).

Alternatively, the name may have been given to a maker of scaffolds or a scaffolder. Compare John Skacher 1327 in Subsidy Rolls (Suffolk) ‘maker of scaffold poles’?