The iconic singer Cher recently shared an unexpected discovery about her name in her new book, Cher: The Memoir, Part One, published on November 19. In the book, the star recounts how she found out that her real name, according to her birth certificate, was not what she had always believed.
Cher thought her birth name was "Cherilyn," but when she tried to legally simplify her name to "Cher" in 1979, she realized that she was actually registered as "Cheryl." Her mother, actress Georgia Holt, explained that the confusion originated at the time of her birth in May 1946.
Cher's mom had many doubts when choosing her name.
"I was just a teenager and going through a lot of pain," Holt said in a previous interview about the complicated moment of giving birth to Cher. According to the book, Cher's mother was undecided about what name to give her daughter, and when a nurse insisted, she decided to improvise based on her favorite actress, Lana Turner, whose daughter's name was Cheryl. However, she tried to be creative and combined her own mother's name, Lynda, to form "Cherilyn". Nevertheless, the official record remained as "Cheryl".
In an appearance on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson in 1979, Cher talked about her decision to adopt simply "Cher" as her professional and legal name, leaving behind the surnames of her father, John Paul Sarkisian; her stepfather, Gilbert LaPiere; and her ex-husbands Sonny Bono and Gregg Allman. "It's better for me. It avoids the confusion of whether they should call me Mrs. Bono, Mrs. Allman, or something like that," she explained.
In addition to this revealing episode about her identity, Cher delved into other aspects of her life in the book, such as the ups and downs of her marriage to Allman and the challenges in her relationship with Bono. She also talked about a peculiar youthful experience related to her virginity, which she described as an act of "revenge." "It was a tremendously overrated experience," Cher recalled about the episode with a neighbor who had "stood her up" after a kiss.
Her reaction was direct: “When it was over, I told him, ‘Is that all? Are we done now? Go home and don’t come back’.” Cher’s book offers an intimate and unfiltered look into the life of a woman whose career and personality have been as vibrant as they have been enigmatic, revealing that even the brightest stars have surprising stories to tell.