Not quite. Its true that his birth name was "Gerald" and he was raised Jewish. (He was probably called "Jerry" for short in H.S. and college) He then added an "o" to the end of his name and started pronouncing it the Spanish way ('heraldo') to give himself more street cred with Hispanic audiences when he started working for Hoy magazine.
The only "urban legend" is Geraldo is a Republican. He laughably identifies as one in public, when in reality he's to the left of Michael Bloomberg.
Right, he’s just Gerald, but not Rivers, Rivera is his real surname.
I didn’t know he actually claimed to be Republican. I guess someone has to be THE biggest RINO.