LOS ANGELES — Music legend Cher shared that she was stunned when she obtained a copy of her birth certificate and found out her real name had been incorrectly registered as Cheryl.
The 78-year-old singer was raised as Cherilyn Sarkisian, but in 1979, she applied for a copy of her birth certificate so she could officially change her moniker to reflect the one she used as a performer.
In an extract from her book 'Cher: The Memoir, Part One' seen by People magazine, she wrote: "I believed Cherilyn was my name until the day years later when I decided to legally change my name to simply Cher."
Cher's mother, Georgia Holt endured a long labour without pain relief when she gave birth a month early and was "exhausted" afterwards, reports femalefirst.co.uk.
When Georgia was recovering, a nurse visited her room and asked the 19-year-old new mother what she planned to name her baby.
Cher wrote: "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? '"
After seeing her birth certificate for the first time, the singer asked her mother: "Do you even know my real name, Mom?"
She told how her mother, who passed away in December 2022 aged 96, took the document, looked at it and simply shrugged as she told her daughter: "I was only a teenager, and I was in a lot of pain. Give me a break."
The 'Strong Enough' hitmaker previously praised her mother for doing such a "good job" with their Christmas celebrations.
She told Britain's OK! magazine: “We were really poor. But my mom always managed to do a good job. She saved her money and mostly that went into Christmas time for my sister and myself. You don't have to have a lot of money to have a fun time at Christmas."