SHARON MILLER

From a biblical place name. The derivation is from the phrase ‘I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys’ (Song of Solomon 2:1). The plant name ‘rose of Sharon’ is used for a shrub of the genus Hypericum, with yellow flowers, and for a species of hibiscus, with purple flowers. Sharon is recorded in the United States from the 18th century, as a name of both boys and girls. Since the 20th century, however, it has been used predominantly if not exclusively for girls.

English and Scottish: occupational name for a miller. The standard modern vocabulary word represents the northern Middle English term, an agent derivative of mille ‘mill’, reinforced by Old Norse mylnari (see Milner). In southern, western, and central England Millward (literally, ‘mill keeper’) was the usual term. The American surname has absorbed many cognate surnames from other European languages, for example French Meunier, Dumoulin, Demoulins, and Moulin; German Mueller; Dutch Molenaar; Italian Molinaro; Spanish Molinero; Hungarian Molnár; Slavic Mlinar, etc.