Cher Didn't Find Out Her Real Name Until 33 Years Old

There was an mistake on her birth certificate.

To the world, there is, and always will be, one and only Cher. But according to the singer, she didn't know what her real name was until she was 33 years old and was "shocked" when she found out the truth.  

In her new book Cher: The Memoir, Part One, the 78-year-old music legend wrote that she always thought she was born as Cherilyn Sarkisian—that is, until she applied for a copy of her birth certificate in 1979 and realized that her first name was actually registered as Cheryl.  

"I believed Cherilyn was my name until the day years later when I decided to legally change my name to simply Cher," she said, before explaining how the mix-up occurred in the first place.

Cher revealed that her then 19-year-old mother, Georgia Holt, went into labor that was long and unmedicated a month early. "She was exhausted by the time I arrived at around 7:30 a.m. on Monday, May 20," she wrote, adding that while she was recovering, a nurse asked what she planned to name the baby.

"My mother had no idea, but the woman insisted so she replied, 'Well, Lana Turner's my favorite actress and her little girl's called Cheryl. My mother's name is Lynda, so how about Cherilyn?'" Cher recounted. 

Once Cher found out about the hospital mix-up decades later, she confronted her mom: "Do you even know my real name, Mom?"

Holt was also in disbelief about the news and told her famous daughter, "I was only a teenager, and I was in a lot of pain. Give me a break."

In 1979, the Grammy-winner legally changed her name to Cher and dropped all four of her surnames: Sarkisian, LaPiere (the last name of her stepfather who adopted her in 1961), and Bono and Allman from her marriages to Sonny Bono and Gregg Allman. 

As for what prompted the name change, Cher previously told Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show (via E! News): "I like it. It's better for me than having people wonder if they should call me Mrs. Allman or Mrs. Bono or Mrs. Bono Allman or Miss Cher or whatever." She continued, "I mean 'Cher' is just fine. Just plain 'Cher.'"