Cher 'shocked' to discover her legal name when she applied to change it

Cher recalls a curious interlude from her rich and many-chaptered history in her new book "Cher: The Memoir, Part One."

The Oscar- and Grammy-winner writes about how, when she went to apply to change her legal name in 1979, she was "shocked" to discover that on her birth certificate her first name was listed as Cheryl, which did not match what she thought her actual name was.

"I believed Cherilyn was my name until the day years later when I decided to legally change my name to simply Cher," the "Moonstruck" star pens in her memoir.

She goes on to explain how her late mother Georgia Holt - who was 19 years old when she gave birth to Cher in 1946 - was exhausted after her labor and did not catch the mixup.

When a nurse came in to her room to ask what the baby's name was, Cher writes, her mother responded that she "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 the alarming discovery, Cher writes that she confronted her mother about it, asking, "Do you even know my real name, Mom?"

According to the memoir, Holt replied, "I was only a teenager, and I was in a lot of pain. Give me a break."

Cher legally changed her name to her famous mononym back in '79, shortening her first name to Cher and shedding her four surnames: her father's last name Sarkisian, her stepfather Gilbert Hartmann LaPiere's last name, and the surnames of both her ex-husbands, Sonny Bono and Gregg Allman.

"Cher: The Memoir, Part One" was published on November 19 and is available now.

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