Cher Expresses Shock Upon Learning Her Real Name Isn’t What She Thought

Cher recently opened up about the “shock” she felt upon discovering that her real birth name was not what she had believed it to be. In her newly released Cher: The Memoir, Part One (published November 19), the pop icon shared details about her childhood, rise to fame in the 1960s and 1970s, and deeply personal moments from her life.

One of the surprising revelations in the memoir recounts how Cher, in 1979, stumbled upon her birth certificate and learned that her legal first name was Cheryl, not Cherilyn as she had always believed. According to People, Cher explained that she had thought Cherilyn was her name until the day she decided to legally shorten it to simply Cher.

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Cher was born on May 20, 1946, in El Centro, California, and had long assumed her given name was Cherilyn Sarkisian. Her mother, Georgia Holt, who was only 19 at the time, had been asked by a nurse after a challenging labour what name she wanted for the baby. Caught off guard, Holt reportedly mentioned her favourite actress, Lana Turner, and Turner’s daughter, Cheryl. She then added her own mother’s name, Lynda, to suggest Cherilyn. However, it later became clear that the nurse had recorded the name as Cheryl on the birth certificate, which surprised Holt.

Cher legally changed her name to just Cher in 1979, dropping both Sarkisian and her married names, Bono and Allman.

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The memoir also delves into Cher’s personal relationships, including a story about Tina Turner seeking her advice on leaving her abusive husband, Ike Turner. Cher also reflected on her own tumultuous marriage to Sonny Bono, which lasted from 1964 to 1975. She claimed that Bono had once confessed to considering pushing her off a balcony after she admitted to wanting to sleep with their guitarist, referred to as “Bill” in the book. Cher described how Bono had apparently laughed while telling her he had contemplated pleading insanity, serving a short prison sentence, and later profiting from the experience through a book deal and a TV show.

Cher recalled responding to Bono by saying there would have been no need to push her since she had already thought about jumping. She called this the “darkest moment” of their marriage but added that, in hindsight, they had both laughed at the absurdity of the conversation. While she didn’t believe Bono would have acted on his thoughts, she acknowledged that the idea had crossed his mind, just as it had crossed hers.

–Silviya.Y

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