Cher, who is worldwide famous for her four-letter name, was under the impression that she was born Cherilyn Sarkisian until her 30s, when she discovered a mistake on her birth certificate. Her legal name was actually Cheryl.
According to her new book Cher: The Memoir, Part One, the pop diva was “shocked” when she discovered the document’s error in 1979 while in the process of changing her name to the single moniker it is now.
“I believed Cherilyn was my name until the day years later when I decided to legally change my name to simply Cher,” the 78-year-old wrote, according to an excerpt published by People.
The story goes that Cher’s mother, Georgia Holt, was extremely tired after a strenuous, unmedicated birth when she was asked by a nurse what she wanted to name her baby girl.
“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?’”
Somehow, the name Cherilyn wasn’t written on the certificate, and Cheryl was put in its place. When Cher confronted her mother about the typo, she wasn’t as rattled as “shocked” Cher.
“I was only a teenager, and I was in a lot of pain. Give me a break,” the 78-year-old recalls her mother saying.
While promoting this candid book, Cher has opened up further about her mother and their relationship.
“My mother was very, very strange,” the Moonstruck Oscar winner told radio host Howard Stern during an interview on Wednesday. “She was loving, but she was crazy.”
In their conversation, Cher confessed that her mom and Sonny Bono, her first husband and music collaborator, were the first two people to believe she “would be something.”
People reports that Holt died back in 2022. She was 96.
