Silicon nanowire (SiNW) silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS) flash memory devices were fabricated and their electrical characteristics were analyzed. Compared to planar SONOS devices, these SiNW SONOS devices have good program/erase (P/E) characteristics and a large threshold voltage ($V_T$) shift of 2.5 V in 1ms using a gate pulse of +14 V. The devices also show excellent immunity to short channel effects (SCEs) due to enhanced gate controllability, which becomes more apparent as the nanowire width decreases. This is attributed to the fully depleted mode operation as the nanowire becomes narrower. 3D TCAD simulations of both devices show that the electric field of the junction area is significantly reduced in the SiNW structure.