Cher Reveals Her Real Name After Birth Certificate Error

Can you believe that Cher didn’t know her real name until she was in her 30s? The 78-year-old musical icon revealed in her new autobiography, Cher: The Memoir, Part One, that it was only in 1979 that she learned the name she thought for years her mother had given her wasn’t the one that was written on her birth certificate.

“I believed Cherilyn was my name until the day years later when I decided to legally change my name to simply Cher,” the “Believe” singer wrote. Turns out that back in 1946, when her then 19-year-old mother, Georgia Holt, had given birth, a nurse stopped by her room to ask what her daughter’s name would be.

“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,’” Cher continued. “‘My mother’s name is Lynda, so how about Cherilyn?’”

Three decades later, the Grammy winner was “shocked” when she obtained her birth certificate as part of her effort to drop her last name Sarkisian, as well as the surnames of stepfather Gilbert LaPiere and ex-husbands Sonny Bono and Gregg Allman.

“I was shocked to discover that I was officially registered as Cheryl,” Cher wrote in her memoir, “and asked my mother, ‘Do you even know my real name, Mom?’” Georgia responded in similar shock before telling her daughter, “I was only a teenager, and I was in a lot of pain. Give me a break.”

Cher has previously opened up to Johnny Carson about her decision to become mononymous in 1979. “I like it,” the “After All” singer said on The Tonight Show. “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.”

Cher has spoken candidly about her life in Cher: The Memoir, Part One, revealing that she once considered jumping off the balcony of her Las Vegas hotel room after feeling trapped in a “loveless” marriage to Bono.

“I was dizzy with loneliness. I saw how easy it would be to step over the edge and simply disappear,” Cher recalled. “For a few crazy minutes I couldn’t imagine any other option. I did this five or six times.” However, the thought of her loved ones, including mom Georgia, stopped Cher, who also feared “things like this could make people who look up to me feel that it’s a viable solution.”

On that same trip, she realized, “I don’t have to jump off. I can just leave him.” Cher and Bono would separate not long after, filing for divorce in 1974 and settling their contentious split the following year.