# Terms of endearment that should really never be revealed outside the relationship. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 10, 2007, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-endearment-that-should-really-never-be-revealed-outside-the-relationship/399431 "2007-04-10T02:39:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-endearment-that-should-really-never-be-revealed-outside-the-relationship/399431/21 "2007-04-10T15:20:13Z")
My boyfriend calls me “Fattles” affectionately sometimes. (I’ve gained a little bit of weight the past few years - not that much!) If people heard him they’d probably take it the wrong way and call him an emotional abuser. Also, it’s what we call our fatter cat. ---
**Author:** ![rucciface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ba9def/32.png) [@rucciface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rucciface)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-endearment-that-should-really-never-be-revealed-outside-the-relationship/399431/22 "2007-04-10T15:27:10Z")
A boyfriend from long ago was “Mr. Poopyface”. I thought it was funny because I’d say it in a _very_ heavy made-up accent. That’s the only term of endearment I’ve used that would be embarrassing and I’ve been lucky in return. Side note, what is this Stinkypaws of which y’all speak? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-endearment-that-should-really-never-be-revealed-outside-the-relationship/399431/23 "2007-04-10T16:59:43Z")
[QUOTE=Giles] “Move over, cabbage.” [/QUOTE] Sometimes late at night I wonder if Queen Victoria told Prince Albert, “Give it to us…” No, no, I can’t go on. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-endearment-that-should-really-never-be-revealed-outside-the-relationship/399431/24 "2007-04-10T17:22:17Z")
“I believe we’re going to spend.” ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-endearment-that-should-really-never-be-revealed-outside-the-relationship/399431/25 "2007-04-10T17:43:21Z")
My husband and I call each other “bee”. He’s big bee, I’m baby bee. It’s our codeword in public for certain situations, but we use it freely at home. It can mean “I love you”, “I’m thinking of you”, “Are you okay?”, “Yeah, I’m okay”, “Thank you”, “You’re welcome”, “Damn, am I ever happy to see you”, and “I’m tired, let’s go home”. Oddly, in reality, I like cartoon-y bees, but real bees scare me. So when I see a bee in real life, my husband might point at it and say, “Bee!” and I will say “YAHHHHHHHHHH!” Sometimes he calls me sweetpea, and I call him Matty-bear. That latter one is pretty bad. Sometimes I just say honeybear, but I’ve been known to call the cats that, and children at my store that… and co-workers, on occasion, depending on the situation. No pookies or poopies or princesses, though. He’s occasionally called me his Queen, but I tell him I’m not a queen until we have babies. I don’t know why. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-endearment-that-should-really-never-be-revealed-outside-the-relationship/399431/26 "2007-04-10T17:46:03Z")
I have an ex-girlfriend, 10 years my senior, whom I called “Bitch” in response to her calling me “Daddy.” The latter nick caused an issue because it was how she had me listed on her cell phone; one day I called her and her grown daughter picked up the line. The daughter apparently said, “Um…isn’t grandpa dead?” causing the ex to leap across the room and yank the phone from her hands. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-endearment-that-should-really-never-be-revealed-outside-the-relationship/399431/27 "2007-04-10T18:00:14Z")
[QUOTE=Anastasaeon] My husband and I call each other “bee”. […] He’s occasionally called me his Queen… [/QUOTE] You can resist calling him your Drone? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-endearment-that-should-really-never-be-revealed-outside-the-relationship/399431/28 "2007-04-10T18:20:00Z")
My wife calls me ‘Mousse’. And I predict that nobody will be able to guess where that came from … ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-endearment-that-should-really-never-be-revealed-outside-the-relationship/399431/29 "2007-04-10T18:26:26Z")
I don’t think I have ever used an annoying pet name. I’ve certainley never had one used on me as any guy in the position to use one would know better. The worst I’ll ever use on my boyfriend is babe or hun. For some reason, I get very uncomfortable when someone calls their SO “lover” in front of me. I get even more uncomfortable when they say it in front of their parents. My ex-boyfriend’s brother used to call his wife “lover” in front of the whole family (parents, grandparents, nieces, and nephews) and it always made me feel a bit squicky. I’m not a prude by any stretch of the imagination but this bothers me more than any other pet name (any my mom and step-dad have some pretty bad ones). ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-endearment-that-should-really-never-be-revealed-outside-the-relationship/399431/30 "2007-04-10T18:28:26Z")
[QUOTE=Fetchund] Ummmm… The Spouse is… Skink. (Sorry, honey!) [/QUOTE] I’m disappointed. I was expecting something birdy. ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-endearment-that-should-really-never-be-revealed-outside-the-relationship/399431/31 "2007-04-10T18:48:04Z")
He’s pooterhead. I used to be punkin, booger, monkey. Now our daughter gets those names along with katie-bug, bugbug, bugaboo, godzilla. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-endearment-that-should-really-never-be-revealed-outside-the-relationship/399431/32 "2007-04-10T18:55:23Z")
My boyfriend and I have only been together 4 months, and so far our only nicknames for each other are joke ones. We’ll both use “schmoopie” every now and then (on our second date we discovered a shared love of _Seinfeld_), but mostly he’ll say it to me. My usual response is to call him “winkie,” which came from watching _Best in Show_ at my place one night. I can’t imagine us ever seriously using nicknames (beyond “baby,” “honey,” etc.), but I guess the relationship is still young. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![want2know](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@want2know](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/want2know)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-endearment-that-should-really-never-be-revealed-outside-the-relationship/399431/33 "2007-04-10T19:10:33Z")
First marriage: I was honeybear, she was pookie-face. That’s about as embarassing as I got. At work (hospital), we have occasion to phone other floors during the work day. A co-worker of mine has a girlfriend working on one of those floors. When he has to call her (work-related, mind you) or vice versa, every other sentence out of his mouth contains the phrase “cutie-pie”. I’m happy for them, but DAMN! On day, she called our station on his day off. The guy who answered, knowing it was her, just blurted out, “What you want, sweetie-pie?” The combination of the spontaneity and his Filipino accent absolutely had us in stitches for at least two minutes! BTW, in my current marriage, it’s simply “Honey” or “Sweetheart”. Except when I laugh at some bizarre thing she doesn’t see the humor in–then I’m “Weirdo”. Actually, I kinda like that better. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-endearment-that-should-really-never-be-revealed-outside-the-relationship/399431/34 "2007-04-10T19:40:19Z")
The spouse and I call each other “Doot.” It’s a good all-purpose sort of word, and it’s cute without being cloying. We also use it in a “Hey, are you there?” sense–one of us yells up the stairs, “Doot?” and the other one yells back down, “Doot!” Sort of like “Marco Polo” for weirdos. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Constant\_Reader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8edcca/32.png) [@Constant\_Reader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Constant_Reader)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-endearment-that-should-really-never-be-revealed-outside-the-relationship/399431/35 "2007-04-10T19:52:39Z")
I call him Bub, he calls me Ladybird. Not so bad in the grand scheme of things. ---
**Author:** ![RedRosesForMe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/91b2a8/32.png) [@RedRosesForMe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedRosesForMe)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-endearment-that-should-really-never-be-revealed-outside-the-relationship/399431/36 "2007-04-10T20:46:02Z")
My ex started calling me Crazy Legs after I lamented the fact that girls don’t give each other cool nicknames like Bail Out Bob, Cricket, or Digger. So I started calling him Cupcake. But I don’t find either of those particularly icky (the crazy legs thing was completely random). I also called him Machine Gun Kelly after he said my apartment made him feel like a Roaring 20s ganster. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-endearment-that-should-really-never-be-revealed-outside-the-relationship/399431/37 "2007-04-10T20:53:22Z")
We change terms of endearment every few years, but at one point we were Honey (me) and Bunny (him). I accidentally slipped and called him Bunny when all the guys and their Harleys were in the yard being manly men. :smack: We traded out our terms of endearment shortly after that. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-endearment-that-should-really-never-be-revealed-outside-the-relationship/399431/38 "2007-04-10T20:54:41Z")
I like to roll down the car windows after I drop the boy-child off at school and holler, “I love you, Honey Possum!” or some similar goofy name. I may do it to the girl-child one of these days if she doesn’t look out, but the boy at least thinks it’s funny. The girl would be _seriously_ embarrassed. ---
**Author:** ![Yeeter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/96bed5/32.png) [@Yeeter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeeter)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-endearment-that-should-really-never-be-revealed-outside-the-relationship/399431/39 "2007-04-10T21:13:57Z")
I don’t mean to derail this thread, but is there any way to get out of a nickname that you don’t like? My g/f has taken to calling me poptart, which I don’t particularly care for, but I know if I protest it will stick that much harder to me. For her, I don’t have a nickname yet, maybe it should be some sort of breakfast food…honey bun, sugar smacks, fruity pebbles… ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-endearment-that-should-really-never-be-revealed-outside-the-relationship/399431/40 "2007-04-10T21:15:26Z")
[QUOTE=Yeeter] I don’t mean to derail this thread, but is there any way to get out of a nickname that you don’t like? My g/f has taken to calling me poptart, which I don’t particularly care for, but I know if I protest it will stick that much harder to me. For her, I don’t have a nickname yet, maybe it should be some sort of breakfast food…honey bun, sugar smacks, fruity pebbles… [/QUOTE] I chose a nickname for someone and they didn’t like it, so I ceased and desisted. Just remember, you can’t offer up another one. It has to come from someone else. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-endearment-that-should-really-never-be-revealed-outside-the-relationship/399431.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-of-endearment-that-should-really-never-be-revealed-outside-the-relationship/399431.md?page=3)