Sharon

Sharon (Hebrew: שָׁרוֹן, Tiberian Hebrew: Šārôn) Is a unisex name which can be spelled with one "r" or two (Sharron). It also refers to several places in the world.

It derives from an Israelite place name meaning "forest" in Hebrew, referring to a fertile plain near the coast of Israel. This gives its name to a type of flowering shrub, the rose of Sharon.

Sharon is one of many names that could formerly be applied to males (as in the 19th-century historian Sharon Turner), but is now nearly always used of females (cf. Vivian, Ashley, Beverly, etc.).

It began being used as a female name sometime in the early part of the 20th century, first being listed as one of the 1000 most popular names for females born in the United States in 1925. By the mid-1940s, it had become an extremely popular name for newborn American girls, remaining a top 10 name for most of the decade, peaking at #8 in both 1943 and 1945. Its popularity began to steadily decline thereafter; the name fell 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, but a sharp decline in popularity followed and since the 1980s it has not even featured in the top 100.