Do You Have a Secret Nickname for Your Sweetie?
REDBOOK recently asked more than 2,000 women to reveal the good, the hot, and the ugly in their relationships for a no-holds-barred love survey. The survey is a lot of fun to read - who doesn't like to see what other women desire, what they're actually doing in bed, and where your love life fits in - but one of the parts I thought was the most interesting didn't have to do with anything hot and heavy.
It was about nicknames. Here's a snippet of the survey:
What do you call your sweetums?
71% percent of you have nicknames for each other:
"He likes to call me Mrs. Darcy, from Pride and Prejudice. Of course this melts my heart." - Jennifer Braun, 39, McFarland, WI
"I'm called Meatball because I sing 'On top of spaghetti...'" - Megan Capone, 34, Dracut, MA
"My husband nicknamed me PITA: pain in the a**. I call him Oscar, as in the grouch!" - Laurie Zeck, 42, Cleveland
"I call him Pot Roast, because he is hot and juicy!" - Kristina Daggs, 32, Terrytown, LA
"He calls me LOML, which stands for Love of My Life." - Adriane Schuster, 62, Floral Park, NY
I love these kinds of confessions, because it's an intimate little window into the private universe that couples create. I can vaguely imagine what kinds of sexual exploits people are getting up to, but I couldn't imagine my boyfriend turning to me and affectionately calling me Meatball. That said, I've given and been given some pretty strange pet names myself.
One ex used to jokingly refer to me as "Baby Poopy" (!) because I have a tendency to be petulant and "act poopy" when I'm in a bad mood. Other people thought it was strange (writing it down now, after the fact, it does seem off-the-wall), but he'd say it in a pouty voice that would make me smile even when I was cranky.
My current guy isn't as into nicknames, but sometimes he'll write "To: Brandy Alexander" on cards or gifts for me (a reference to a Feist song we both liked when we first started dating), or call me "Ma pêche" which means "my peach" in French. I have a ton of nicknames for him, but the one I use most frequently is "Bug" (short for lovebug). Sappy and silly, yes, but I treasure the fact that no one else in the world calls us these names but each other.
How about you? What's the cutest or craziest nickname you've ever earned from a love? What's the cutest or craziest you've ever given?
MORE FROM REDBOOK:
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Reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc.
