I'm looking for some friendly type names to call people

[GreenElf]

palooka
weisenheimer
bubba
goombah
yooze

[GreenElf]

daddy-o
sport
goodtime charlie

[GreenElf]

paisano
friend
compadre
amigo
hey, old [their last name]

[AppallingGael]

I remember a Dave Berg “Lighter Side” in MAD magazine where Joe Schmo greets some local big shot, and Big Shot responds “Hey, Mac!” Whereupon Mr. Schmo turns to his wife and says all excitedly “did you hear that?! He addressed me by my name! ‘Mac’! Maybe I’m not such a schnook after all!” as she listens all abeam. Then in the next panel, Big Shot returns the greetings of every other with “you too, Mac!” “pleasure’s mine, Mac!” “likewise, Mac!”, and Schmo sadly droops as his wife’s approval turns to scorn.

Not to brag, but I was always pretty good at predicting those Dave Berg twists.

[vontsira]

@notquitekarpov

If you article is US-centric then I can’t help you.

But if your interest extends to international terms of endearment to strangers then in the UK, in addition to the aforementioned and universal ‘dear’ and ‘love’ we have ‘duck’ and ‘babs’ (Midlands), ‘hen’ or less commonly now ‘doll’ (both Scots - obviously for use to ladies only), ‘hun’ or 'hinny and ‘pet’ (NE England), ‘my lover’ (SW England - esp Bristol), ‘chuck’ (Manchester area), kid or kidder (Liverpool), babes (Essex), Boyo (Wales - for men only but rare now only using used by English taking the piss), ‘cocker’ or ‘cock’ (parts of northern England) and finally ‘princess’ or ‘treasure’ (parts of London).

Additional UK info: the people of the north-east of Scotland speak an unusual variant of English, with rather a lot of words unknown elsewhere. In those parts, any male human will be addressed as “loon” (no connotations of insanity: it’s more or less equivalent to “lad” or “fella”); any female ditto, as “quine”.