Polish place name Scharlach?

Hi, I am searching for an ancestor called Harris Benjamin. The only thing we know about him is that he was born in Poland around 1860. On one of the census forms the name Scharlach is written, could that correspond to a Polish town? I presume that the spelling would be different but that the enumerator who wrote it on the census form wrote it phonetically.

Any help gratefully received
Thanks!
Aylene

it could be this:

https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szarlejka

Thanks for the suggestion. I believe that his place of origin was part of the Russian empire. Would that be the cae for Szarljka around 1870?

Thanks!
Aylene

Found such places as Szarłat, Szarłata and Szarłatów. The Polish spelling of the town you mentioned would have to be Szrałach or Szarlach. Perhaps it is beyond the borders of today's downsized Poland or has changed its name.

Thanks for that. This sounds very promising. I looked up the places and Szarłat and Szarlata and both seem quite promising. Now the difficult bit... how to find any records?

Can anybody give me any suggestions as to what his original Polish name would have been?
I thought perhaps Herschel or Hirsch but am not sure if these are Polish names.
Thanks again, your help is really appreciated! Aylene

Thread attached on merging:
Scharlach surname or place name

I have a small clue in my research to find one of our ancestors - Scharlach, written under place of origin but added as an afterthought. I found online that this is also a reasonably common Jewish surname. Does anybody have any more information? Thanks in advance.

Hmm, that's the German word for scarlet fever or szkarlatyna.