Keke Palmer Left Stunned After Learning Oprah’s Real Name

Keke Palmer was visibly stunned during a recent episode of her podcast when Oprah Winfrey revealed that her birth name is actually Orpah, a biblical name from the Book of Ruth that was mispronounced and misspelled as “Oprah” since childhood. The revelation left the internet buzzing as fans realized they’ve been calling one of the most famous women in the world by a different name for decades.

The talk show icon explained that her Aunt Ida named her after the biblical figure Orpah, the sister-in-law of Ruth. “Ruth, first chapter, 14th verse,” Winfrey told Palmer. “It’s that whole Ruth and Naomi story. And you know, Ruth said, ‘Wherever thy goest, I will go.’ And then Orpah said, ‘I’m going back. I’m sorry. I can’t. Too long. The road’s too long.

Winfrey said the switch to “Oprah” wasn’t a conscious decision; it was a simple spelling error that stuck. “Nobody knew how to spell it. So, it turned out on my birth certificate, it’s Orpah. And then people started calling me Oprah. And so it’s just the difference between the P being before the R or after the R. So once they started with Oprah, that’s it”. She confessed she didn’t even learn the truth until she was roughly 20 years old.

The reveal sparked a wave of social media reactions, with fans processing the fact that the world has been saying her name wrong her entire life. Palmer, who herself goes by her middle name instead of her birth name Lauren Keyana, found a kindred spirit in the media mogul.