http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Sharon gives this information for the name Sharon:

"The girl's name Sharon \sh(a)-ron\ is pronounced SHARE-en. It is of Hebrew origin, and its meaning is "a fertile plain". Biblical place name: refers to flat land at the foot of Mount Carmel. The Song of Solomon describes the beloved Schulamite woman as a flower of Sharon. Actresses Sharon Gless, Sharon Stone.

Sharon has 28 variant forms: Charin, Cheron, Shara, Sharan, Shareen, Shareena, Sharen, Sharena, Sharene, Shari, Sharie, Sharla, Sharolyn, Sharona, Sharonda, Sharonna, Sharren, Sharrin, Sharron, Sharronne, Sharyn, Sheran, Sheron, Sherri, Sherron, Sherry, Sheryn and Sherynn."

-snip-

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharon :

Sharon (שָׁרוֹן, Standard Hebrew Šaron, Tiberian Hebrew Šārôn) is a Female (or, less frequently, male) name which can be spelt with one "r" or two (Sharron). It also refers to several places in the world: From an Old Testament place name meaning "forest" in Hebrew, referring to a fertile plain near the coast of Israel. This is also the name of a type of flowering shrub, the rose of Sharon. Various nicknames of Sharon include Sharai, Sharona, Sharonald, Sharry, Sherri, Sherrie, Sherye, Shazz, Shazzy and Shazza.
-snip-

[Personally, I;ve never hear the name Shazz, Shazzy, and Shazza, as nicknames for Sharon or otherwise]

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Pamela Samuelson's book Baby Names For The New Century {Harper Books, p. 914; 1994} gives this information:
"Sharon {SHAR-on} English, Hebrew; "flat plain". reference to the fertile plain between Jaffa and Mount Carmel, Isreal. Movies and Television: Sharon Ritchie, Miss America 1956; Sharon Stone actress (Basic Instinct); Literature: Sharon Falconer, character in Sinclair Lewis' novel Elmer Gantry "
-snip-

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SharonA, note that the wikipedia entry includes the name Sharai. Samuelson's book gives this information for that name:
"Sharai {shah-RYE} Isreal, Hebrew, "queen's daughter". origin of the English name "Sharon". {p. 913}

Samuelson {and other sources} note that the Hebrew female name "Sarah" means "young royal" or "princess." Samuelson gives more than 25 variants of the nae Sarah [including the name Sally which is featured in a great many folk songs & children's rhymes]. Yet that editor doesn't include the name Sharon in that list, which is curious to me since, according to the entries in her book, both the name Sharon and Sarah mean "princess".

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In my opinion, ancient Hebrews may have selected the name Sharon name for their daughter because of the association with "fertility" i.e."the fertle plain" or the rose of Sharon ["Sharon" being the flat plain where these roses were found], or because of the status meaning {if that association with Sharai and Sharon is indeed correct]. Perhaps the status meaning came before the place name meaning.[?]..I think that Americans' selection of the female name Sharon were much more influenced by the conection with the Biblical "rose of Sharon" and not "the flat plain" meaning {if most Americans know this meaning, which I doubt}. The fact that Miss America, 1956 was named Sharon probably contributed to that name's popularity- at least until the 1970s when it became "the thing to do" to select multicultural and/or "unique" and/or "different" [meaning names different from the "old fashioned" names of the1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.

According to books I have read, African Americans always have had a deeper pool of female and male personal names to draw from than European Americans {since that "pool" included those European names, Hebrew names, and variants of names from those languages, and names from other sources}. Female African American names have aways been more diverse than African American male names. However, since the 1990s, African American male names appear to diverge from "mainstream American names" much more than they ever have before.