Original photo by dpa picture alliance/ Alamy Stock Photo
If you’ve ever wondered what appears on Cookie Monster’s birth certificate, the answer isn’t “Cookie Monster” — it’s “Sid.” Sesame Street’s resident cookie-lover joins the likes of Cap’n Crunch (Horatio Magellan Crunch), Yoshi (T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas), and other fictional characters who have “real” names you might not know. (Speaking of Sesame Street, Snuffleupagus’ first name is actually Aloysius.) Cookie Monster revealed his actual name in the 2004 segment “The First Time Me Eat Cookie,” which includes the line, “In fact, back then, me think me name was Sid.” Despite this, many were still shocked when, in October 2022, the character tweeted, “Did you know me name is Sid? But me still like to be called Cookie Monster.”
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It's a fibIn his original drawings of the character, Jim Henson designed Oscar the Grouch as a “spiky, grumpy-looking magenta monster.” But because early color TVs didn’t handle magenta well, Oscar’s color was changed to orange. He didn’t premiere his current look until the second season.
Though he made waves with the 2004 song “A Cookie Is a Sometimes Food,” Cookie Monster’s love of his namesake treat remains undiminished — and no, he isn’t going to change his name to Veggie Monster. Sid was designed by Jim Henson for an unaired General Foods Canada commercial in 1966, made his Sesame Street debut on the beloved show’s first episode three years later, and has remained a fan favorite in the more than half-century since.
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“Sesame Street” almost had a different name.
While still in the development stage, the show was going to be called 123 Avenue B. There were two overlapping problems with that title, however: It was a real address in New York City, and the creators feared that viewers outside the city wouldn’t be intrigued by it. Sesame Street was chosen in part to evoke the “Open, sesame” command from “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” a story in One Thousand and One Nights. Traces of the original title can be found in the show’s most famous address — 123 Sesame Street — a two-story brownstone apartment where Bert and Ernie live.
Interesting Facts writers have been seen in Popular Mechanics, Mental Floss, A+E Networks, and more. They’re fascinated by history, science, food, culture, and the world around them.
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