Sharon

Sharon comes from a Hebrew place name meaning plain, referring to the fertile coastal Plain of Sharon between the Mediterranean and the hills of Samaria. In the Song of Songs, the bride says, I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys, a phrase that later gave its name to several flowering plants, including a hibiscus and a species of Saint John’s wort. English speakers adopted Sharon as a girls’ name in the twentieth century. In Israel the name is used for both boys and girls, and Sharona is a feminine elaboration.