Cher 'shocked' after unexpectedly finding out her real name on birth certificate
Rhianna Benson
Featured Image Credit: Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images/Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
It took over 30 years for US musician Cher to discover the name she'd gone by her entire life wasn't actually the moniker prescribed to her at birth.
In 1979, while making plans to legally change her name to simply 'Cher', she made the startling revelation by accident as she came across her official birth certificate for the very first time.
Throughout the duration of her time in the spotlight, Cher has gone by one name, and one name only. That being, 'Cher'.
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Prior to accumulating the title of the 'Goddess of Pop', however, she went by the first name 'Cherilyn', and actually had four surnames.
The first was Sarkisian - the surname of her Armenian-American truck driver father, John.
The next was LaPiera - the legal name she assumed when her bank manager step-father Gilbert adopted her in 1961 after marrying her mother, Georgia Holt.
Later, after she wed Sonny Bono in 1969 and formed the musical duet Sonny & Cher, she took on his four-letter surname.
And when they divorced in the years that followed and she married rock musician Gregg Allman, she they added that moniker to her roster.
In 1979, however, she'd had enough of her elongated title and - having been referred to by fans and in the media as simply 'Cher' for sometime - she began the process of dropping all four surnames, and going by the one first name.
It was during this procedure, however, that she made a mind-blowing discovery about her first name, finding out she wasn't named 'Cherilyn' after all.
Writing in her memoir, the now 78-year-old 'Believe' hit-maker recalled being told she had to apply for a copy of her birth certificate in order to have her name changed.
After it arrived in the post, however, the singer claimed she was shocked to see that her mother and father had actually called her 'Cheryl' when she was born.
"I believed Cherilyn was my name until the day years later when I decided to legally change my name to simply Cher," she penned, lifting the lid on how she'd managed to remain mistaken for so long.
Cher explained that her mother - who was 19 at the time - went into labour a month early during a lengthy and unmedicated birth experience.
"She was exhausted by the time I arrived at around 7:30 a.m. on Monday, May 20," the musician wrote.
After Cher was born, a nurse had asked what she planned on naming her daughter.
"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?'" she wrote.
A mix-up then occurred, where the name 'Cheryl' was written on the official documentation.
"I believed Cherilyn was my name until the day years later when I decided to legally change my name to simply Cher," she penned.
Revealing she approached her mum about the dilemma following the discovery, she claimed she'd asked her, 'Do you even know my real name, Mom?', after which Holt - who died in 2022 - struggled and reportedly told her daughter: "I was only a teenager, and I was in a lot of pain. Give me a break."