Many versions of the oikonym origin exist. Within one of them, it is a Pre-Christian anthroponym (name of Polovtsian sovereign Sharukan).
Within the other version, the village name came from Tatar language word шалкан [(tat.) shalkan] ‘turnip’.
Local citizens guess that the name came from connection of two Udmurt words: шар кадь [(udm.) shar kad’] ‘as a ball, round shape’. First households were settled on the bottom of mountains. Looking at these places from a height, one gets the impression that the village is located at the bottom of a large sphere.
The first mention in the census is from 1648 as Починок вновь росчисной Шаркан [(rus.) Pochinok vnov’ roschisnoy Sharkan] with five households. Initially, farmers from the Lonlez/Lomlez’ village settled here because the place had fertile land and many streams. First relocatees were originated from family groups Purga and Dӧkiya.
Sharkan became a bigger village – selo – in 1838 because of the building of the Peter and Paul Church was finished in this year [Atamanov 2015: 890; Lozhkina 2005: 5-14].