Oprah Winfrey reveals legal birth name Orpah

Media mogul Oprah Winfrey revealed that her legal birth name is not Oprah but Orpah, a detail she shared during a recent podcast appearance. The 72-year-old television icon explained the origin of the name and how a childhood spelling error led to the permanent change during an episode of actress Keke Palmer's podcast, "Baby, This Is Keke Palmer."

Winfrey stated that her birth certificate reads Orpah Gail Winfrey, a name chosen by her Aunt Ida from the Book of Ruth in the Bible. She recounted the biblical story, noting that while Ruth pledged to stay with Naomi, Orpah decided the journey was too long and turned back. The mix-up occurred because people in her community when she was a child struggled with the spelling, consistently reversing the "r" and "p."

"It turned out on my birth certificate, it's Orpah," Winfrey said. "And then people started calling me Oprah. It's just the difference of the p being before the r or after the r. Once they started with Oprah, that's it." She emphasized that the change was not her own decision, as she was too young at the time, and she did not discover the discrepancy on her birth certificate until she was approximately 20 years old.