\n<\/p>\n
Whoopi Goldberg<\/a>‘s stage name has quite the back story. The 68-year-old performer, whose birth name is\u00a0Caryn Elaine Johnson, says she initially planned to go by the name “Whoopi Cushione” in the early days of her career.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The moniker, of course, serves as a reference to the iconic “Whoopee Cushion” toy, but is said with a French accent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “My mother said, ‘Are you crazy?'” Goldberg revealed during a recent interview on <\/span>Late Night With Seth Meyers<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “She said, ‘You are diminishing your abilities and if you call yourself by ‘Whoopee Cushion’ people are not going to … appreciate what you can do,” she continued. “And I said, ‘Oh, really, oh great namer of the stars?'”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The actress said she conceded and asked for her mother’s input on the matter, landing on a name with more personal value.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “She said, ‘Well there’s a lot of family names, we got a lot of different people in our families, I like Goldberg,'” the <\/span>Sister Act<\/span><\/em> star recalled. “I said, ‘OK, we’ll try it.'”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The name stuck and Goldberg ended up telling her mother, Emma Harris, “You were right, I was wrong.”<\/span><\/p>\n The EGOT winner recounts this story and many others in her memoir,\u00a0<\/span>Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me<\/em>, which was released in May.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n “Once I started\u00a0getting parts in plays,\u00a0I wanted a name that sounded more interesting. Caryn Johnson wasn\u2019t it,” she wrote, according to an excerpt published by <\/span>Us Weekly<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Whoopi” originated as a nickname from her colleagues, she wrote, because she “would sometimes let loose with a fart.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The book was written in honor of her late mother, who died in 2010 from a stroke, and her brother, Clyde, who died five years later from a brain aneurysm.<\/span><\/p>\n While promoting the book’s release, Goldberg told ET that now seemed like the perfect time to give her family the spotlight, given she was running up against time herself.<\/span><\/p>\n “I didn’t know if now was the right time to tell the story. It was just what I decided I needed to do. It wasn’t like a big revelation, and I think it’s just because I was starting to forget some stuff, you know?” Goldberg said. “The book isn’t really about me. It’s about the trio of people, and so I wanted to hold on as long as I could and kept writing stuff and this came out.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n RELATED CONTENT:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n