In Cheers lore, the bar’s original name when it opened was Mom’s.
The detail comes from the sitcom’s internal history, not from the real Boston pub that inspired the exterior. In the eighth-season episode “The Stork Brings a Crane,” the show establishes that the bar opened in 1889 under the name Mom’s. The same episode gives the fictional bar an address at 112 Beacon Street.
The bar went through several owners and identities before Sam Malone became its proprietor and head bartender. Later dialogue and storylines also mention figures such as Gus O’Malley, reinforcing the idea that Cheers had a long history before the series began.
Viewers often confuse Mom’s with the Bull & Finch Pub. The Bull & Finch was the real Boston establishment used as the visual model for Cheers, while Mom’s is the bar’s fictional original name inside the television universe. Another misleading clue is the “Est. 1895” sign: the series says Carla chose that date for numerological reasons, even though the bar supposedly opened in 1889.