Sharon

Sharon (Hebrew: שָׁרוֹן Šārôn "plain"), also spelled Saron, is a given name as well as an Israeli surname.

In English-speaking areas, Sharon is now predominantly a feminine given name. However, historically it was also used as a masculine given name. In Israel, it is used both as a masculine and a feminine given name.

Etymology

The Hebrew word simply means "plain", but in the Hebrew Bible, שָׁרוֹן is the name specifically given to the fertile plain between the Samarian Hills and the coast, known (tautologically) as Sharon plain in English. The phrase "rose of Sharon" (חבצלת השרון ḥăḇaṣṣeleṯ ha-sharon) occurs in the KJV translation of the Song of Songs ("I am the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley"), and has since been used in reference to a number of flowering plants.

Unlike other unisex names that have come to be used almost exclusively as feminine (e.g. Evelyn), Sharon was never predominantly a masculine name. Usage before 1925 is very rare and was apparently inspired either from the Biblical toponym or one of the numerous places in the United States named after the Biblical plain.

Usage history

Use as a feminine name began in the early 20th century, first entering the statistics of the 1,000 most popularly given names in the United States in 1925. Its inspiration was possibly the heroine of the serial novel The Skyrocket by Adela Rogers St. Johns, published in 1925 and made into a romantic drama film starring Peggy Hopkins Joyce in 1926.

The name's popularity took a steep increase only in the mid-1930s, however, and peaked during the 1940s, remaining a top 10 name for most of the decade. The variant Sharron is on record during the 1930s to 1970s, with a peak popularity in the US in 1943. The more eccentric spelling Sharyn was popular only for a brief time in the 1940s, peaking in 1945.

The name's popularity has steadily declined since the 1940s (except for a slight rise in the late 1950s), falling out of the top 100 after 1977, and out of the top 500 after 2001.

In the United Kingdom, its popularity peaked during the 1960s. It was the 10th most popular female name by 1964 and was still as high as 17th in 1974 (when it was at rank 70 in the US), but a sharp decline in popularity followed and since the 1980s it has not featured in the top 100.

While appearing on the BBC's Celebrity Mastermind, contestant Amanda Henderson was asked to name the Swedish teenage climate activist who wrote a book titled No One's Too Small to Make a Difference. Henderson answered "Sharon." Following the broadcast, climate activist Greta Thunberg (the correct response to the question) changed her name to Sharon on her Twitter bio (which remained there for the day: 3 January 2020).

People with the given name

Feminine given name

• Sharon Beasley-Teague (born 1952), American politician
• Saron Berhe (born 2007), Ethiopian middle-distance runner
• Sharon Blady, Canadian politician
• Sharon Bruneau (born 1964), Canadian female bodybuilder and fitness competitor
• Sharon Dahlonega Raiford Bush (born 1952), American TV personality
• Sharon Campbell, British diplomat
• Sharon Case (born 1971), American actress
• Sharon Choi (born 1994/1995), Korean-American interpreter and filmmaker
• Sharon Christian (1950–2015), Canadian artist
• Sharon Cohen (born 1972), more commonly known as Dana International, an Israeli pop singer
• Sharon Corr (born 1970), Irish musician and member of The Corrs
• Sharon Claydon (born 1964), Australian politician
• Sharon Creech (born 1945), author of children's books Walk Two Moons and Ruby Holler
• Sharon Cuneta (born 1966), Filipina actress and host of the Sharon talk show
• Sharron Davies (born 1962), British swimmer
• Sharon den Adel (born 1974), co-founder of and singer for Dutch symphonic metal band Within Temptation
• Sharon Dijksma (born 1971), Dutch politician
• Sharon Doorson (born 1987), Dutch singer
• Sharon Epperson (born 1968), CNBC correspondent
• Sharon Fichman (born 1990), Canadian/Israeli tennis player
• Sharon Lee Gallegos (1955–1960), American murder victim
• Sharon Gibson (born 1961), English javelin thrower
• Sharon Hampson (born 1943), Canadian singer
• Sharon Hanson (born 1965), American heptathlete
• Sharon Hayes (born 1948), Canadian politician
• Sharon Hodgson (born 1966), British politician
• Sharon Horgan (born 1970), Irish comedy writer
• Sharon Jaklofsky (born 1968), Australian-Dutch athlete
• Sharon Jansen, New Zealand architect
• Sharon Jordan (born 1960), American film and television actress
• Sharon Kantor (born 2003), Israeli world champion windsurfer
• Sharon Kinne (born 1939), American fugitive
• Sharon Kips (born 1983), Dutch singer
• Saron Läänmäe, Estonian footballer
• Sharon Lawrence (born 1961), American television actress
• Sharon Leal (born 1972), American actress and director
• Sharon Lee (writer) (born 1952), American novelist
• Sharon G. Lee (born 1952), American judge
• Sharon Letlape, South African politician
• Sharon Lohr, American statistician
• Sharon Maguire (born 1960), British film director
• Sharron McClellan (born 1963), American action-adventure author
• Sharon Lee (disambiguation)
• Sharon Menzies, New Zealand financier
• Sharon Lee Myers (born 1941), stage name Jackie DeShannon, American singer
• Sharon Needles (born 1981), American drag queen and winner of RuPaul's Drag Race season 4
• Sharon Nesmith (born 1969/70), Brigadier of the British Army
• Sharon Olds (born 1942), American poet
• Sharon Osbourne (born 1952), English music promoter and TV personality, wife and manager of Ozzy Osbourne
• Sharon Que (born 1960), American artist
• Sharon Quirk-Silva (born 1962), American politician
• Sharon Redd (1945–1992), American singer
• Sharon Rendle (born 1966), British judoka
• Sharon Shannon (born 1968), Irish musician
• Sharon Shapiro, American gymnast
• Sharon Slater, Irish historian
• Sharon Hartman Strom, American historian
• Sharon Alaina Stephen (born 1987), Malaysian actress
• Sharon Stone (born 1958), American actress, model and producer
• Sharon Tate (1943–1969), American actress
• Sharon Tyler Herbst (1942–2007), American chef and author
• Sharon Tyler, American politician
• Sharon Van Etten (born 1981), American singer-songwriter
• Sharon Waxman (born c.1963), American journalist
• Sharon Weston Broome (born 1956), American politician
• Sharon Witherspoon, British statistician
• Sharon White (born 1967), British businesswoman and civil servant
• Sharon Yaish, Israeli film director
• Sharon Zukin (born 1946), American academic
• Sharon Zukowski (1954/55–2015), American mystery novelist

Masculine given name

• Sharon Afek (born 1970), Israeli general
• Sharon Drucker (born 1967), Israeli professional basketball coach
• Sharon Rotbard (born 1959), Israeli architect publisher and author
• Sharon Shason (born 1979), retired Israeli basketball player
• Sharon Turner (1768–1847), English historian
• Sharon Tyndale (1816–1871), American politician
• Sharon Yaari (born 1966), Israeli photographer
• Arthur Saron Sarnoff, American artist and illustratorPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets

People with the surname

Sharon was adopted as a surname by Zionist emigrants in the context of the Hebrew revival in the early 20th century, and has since become a heritable Israeli surname.

• Arieh Sharon (born Ludwig Kurzmann, 1900–1984), Israeli architect
• Ariel Sharon (born Ariel Scheinermann, 1928–2014), Israeli Prime Minister. Scheinermann was given the surname Sharon by David Ben-Gurion in c. 1948.
• Avraham Sharon (born Abraham Schwadron, 1878–1957), Israeli intellectual
• Carma Sharon, Australian actress, director and producer
• Gus Saron, South African activistPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
• Moshe Sharon (born 1937), Israeli scholar of Islamic history and civilization, author i.a. of the Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae, a work in progress planned to contain all ancient Arabic inscriptions found in the Holy Land
• Omri Sharon (born 1964), Israeli politician, son of the former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
• Revital Sharon (born 1970), Israeli Olympic artistic gymnast
• Tuot Saron, Cambodian politicianPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
• Yuval Sharon, American stage director

Pseudonym

• Deke Sharon, stage name of Kurk Richard Toohey (born 1967), American singer, musician, producer

Fictional characters

• Sharon (シャロン), a character from the Street Fighter EX series
• Sharon, a character in the 1981 American made-for-television movie Fallen Angel
• Sharon, a character in the 2001 American made-for-television drama movie A Girl Thing
• Sharon Carter, a Marvel Comics character
• Sharon Charles, main character of the 2009 film Obsessed
• Sharon Collins Newman, a character in the daytime soap opera The Young and The Restless
• Sharon Cooper, a character in the 1982 musical film Grease 2
• Sharon, a Doctor Who magazine character
• Sharon Jellinsky, a minor character in the film Addams Family Values
• Sharon Kaneko, supporting character in anime and manga series Space Brothers (manga)
• Sharon Kaur, a character played by Jez Dhillon in the British web series Corner Shop Show
• Sharon Marsh, a character on South Park
• Sharon McGee, a character from The Ghost and Molly McGee
• Sharon McKendrick, one of the two main characters in the 1961 American romantic comedy The Parent Trap
• Sharon Potter, a character from the American TV sitcom Get a Life (1990–1992)
• Sharon Rainworth, a character in the manga and anime series Pandora Hearts
• Sharon Strzelecki, a character from Kath & Kim
• Sharon Esther Spitz, the protagonist of the Canadian animated TV series Braceface
• Sharon Thompson, (born 1983) character created by The Agent in early 2023. She is the mother of late Shelby Thompson
• Sharon Valerii, a character from Battlestar Galactica
• Rose of Sharon Joad Rivers, a character from The Grapes of Wrath
• Sharon Rai Prakash, a character from the Indian series Dil Dosti Dance
• Sharon Watts, a character from the British soap opera EastEnders

See also

• Sharen Gravelle, American woman indicted for child abuse
• Sharen Jester Turney (born 1956), American global business leader

Placenames

• Sharon, Ontario, Canada
• Sharon, Connecticut
• Sharonville, Ohio
• Sharon, Pennsylvania
• Sharon Springs, New York
• Sharon Springs, Kansas
• Sharon, Massachusetts
• Sharon, New Jersey
• Sharon, Vermont
• Sharon, South Carolina
• Sharon, Georgia
• Sharon, North Dakota
• Sharon, Queensland, Australia

References