Cher was “shocked” to find out her real name.

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 – and discovered she had actually been registered as Cheryl.

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.”