Cher Says She Was 'Shocked' to Find Out Her Legal Name After Birth Certificate Mix-Up

The music legend remembers her mom telling her, "I was only a teenager, and I was in a lot of pain," after she discovered the error made by a hospital nurse

Cher made an unexpected discovery when she began the process of legally changing her name.

In her new memoir Cher: The Memoir, Part One, which was released on Nov. 19, the 78-year-old music legend — who was born Cherilyn Sarkisian — recounts how she applied for a copy of her birth certificate in 1979 and was "shocked" to see that her first name was 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 writes, explaining how the mix-up occurred.

Back in 1946, her then 13-year-old mother, Georgia Holt, went into labor a month early at a small hospital in El Centro, Calif., and had a long, unmedicated labor. "She was exhausted by the time I arrived at around 7:30 a.m. on Monday, May 20," Cher writes.

Related: Looking Back on Cher's Touching Photos with Mom Georgia Holt Through the Years

While her mother was recovering, a nurse visited her room and asked what she planned to name her newborn. "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? ' " the "Believe" singer recounts in her memoir.

When Cher later learned of the birth certificate error, she asked her mother, "Do you even know my real name, Mom?" She writes that her mother snatched the document from her hands, looked at it and simply shrugged.

She told her famous daughter, "I was only a teenager, and I was in a lot of pain. Give me a break."

The Grammy Award winner legally changed her name in 1979, shortening her first name to Cher and dropping the four surnames she had at the time: her birth name Sarkisian; LaPiere, the legal name she assumed when her stepfather adopted her in 1961; and Bono and Allman from her marriages to Sunny Bono and Gregg Allman.

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Cher's mother died in December 2022 at the age of 96 after being hospitalized for pneumonia that September. The Moonstruck star revealed the sad news on X (formerly known as Twitter) at the time, writing simply, "Mom is gone."

In 2013, Cher opened up to PEOPLE about what she learned from her mom, explaining that Holt — an actress and musician — never gave the singer and her sister Georganne advice "because, truthfully, she knew we’d never take it."

She explained: “Instead, we learned about life by listening to her talk about the things she did wrong and the things she did right.”

Related: Cher Recalls Taking a Stranger's Horse and Hopping a Freight Train at Age 9: 'Could've Gotten Killed'

Cher remembered being in awe of her late mom's glamour. "She and her friends were so beautiful. When they walked into the room, everything stopped. She was also an amazing dresser," she said.

The music icon also admitted to being "really strong-headed" as a child and putting her mom through some trials with her wild behavior.

"I did a couple of things like running away when I was 11. I hopped a train with my friends," she told PEOPLE. "I was just very adventurous — but never disrespectful. She wouldn’t have put up with that."

Cher: The Memoir, Part One is available now, wherever books are sold.