Cher was gobsmacked to discover she'd been going by the wrong name.
The songstress wrote about the incident in her new memoir Cher: The Memoir Part One, along with detailed accounts of her life, successes and relationships. In the book, Cher explained that she applied for a copy of her birth certificate back in 1979 and discovered that her real name was Cheryl, not Cherilyn like she'd previously believed.
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She wrote: "I believed Cherilyn was my name until the day years later when I decided to legally change my name to simply Cher." The singer explained that the mixup happened after her mother Georgia welcomed Cher a month early.
According to the star, her mother's labour was long and unmedicated at just 19-years-old: "She was exhausted by the time I arrived at around 7:30 a.m. on Monday, May 20."
A nurse asked her mother what she planned to call baby Cher: "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?"
The Believe singer asked her parent about the birth certificate mishap and joked: "Do you even know my real name, Mom?" to which Georgia replied: "I was only a teenager, and I was in a lot of pain. Give me a break."
Cher legally changed her name to the iconic moniker way back in 1979 and ditched her four last names: her surname Sarkisan, her stepfather's last name LaPiere, ex-husband Sonny's surname Bono and ex-husband Gregg's last name Allman.
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