Sonny & Cher originally performed under what name?

What do you do when you're two broke unknowns from Los Angeles trying to make a splash in the music business? Name yourselves after the most famous couple alive. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton had fallen for each other playing Cleopatra and Mark Antony, and their affair was a worldwide scandal. So Sonny and Cher ripped the names straight from the tabloids and became Caesar and Cleo. Neither of them was a stranger to a fake name, since Sonny had recorded as Don Christy and Cher as Bonnie Jo Mason, and like those, Caesar and Cleo went nowhere. What finally got them global recognition was their own names, the ones they used on "I Got You Babe," which hit No. 1 in August of 1965. Turns out authenticity really does sell.