As my SO and I were having this discussion the other day, it brought up an interesting point. Where do you cross the line from being cute to inducing nausea? What about from endearing to condescending? What is your favorite? Least favorite?
For me, I like the more original ones, but nothing along the lines of, say, “pookie snoogums,” which a relative of mine likes. Bleh! That’s what I might call my dog when being affectionate, not for human consumption!
I confess: I have referred to a (now-ex) SO as “pookie bottom.” Repeatedly.
For the record, I dumped her.
I’m not into pet names. Sometimes I use honey or baby (imitating Bruce Campbell, of course).
The only really unique nicknames I use are imitation German, since she speaks it and I don’t. You know, “schveetencaken,” “smuchenkissen,” stuff like that. When I do that, she usually calls me goober. 
Senior year in high school, my girlfriend called me “Thrash” and I called her “Spike.” We made everyone around us sick.
(curse you all for making me remember that)
Junior year at University, one of my roommates and his girl called each other “Boo” constantly. I never thought of a good line to shut them up.
Can’t believe you actually started a thread about this, lekker ding. 
God, I’m horrible about pet names. Everything from honey to sugar to baby to boo is used in my house on a regular basis. It’s so bad, AAMOF, that I sometimes stumble over my wife’s actual name on the rare occasion I have to use it.
As for the most original, I called her “Pot Pie” for months, which I then shortened to “Pie”.
:o
The shame. The horror .
sugar britches and monkey face.
now my CAT…that’s where it starts gettin’ a little scary.
looks around furtively…hardcore calls mrs. hardcore “wifey poo.”
HAHAHAHAHAHA
(Dodge that one, Dad!!! =P=P=P!!!)
Well… I called my ex Bear, which she loved, and sweetheart, which I loved and she tolerated. If I wanted to get a rise out of her, I called her princess (I only did that if she called me Sweet Cheeks, which i loathed). She mostly just called me lover or my love.
My current calls me hon or occasionally honeybun wince
I prefer it when she sticks to boy, or just my name.
I call my current handsome, sexy or sigh hon.
Not very inventive, but I’ve never been able to understand the whole ‘pumpkin’, ‘muffin’, ‘pookywooky’ thing…
Oh God.
We have so many stupid names for each other.
He called me “sweetpea” for a while…it got shortened to P.
He also decided I looked like a hobbit…and called me Bubba Boakins…now shortened to Mrs B.
I call him Bubbeh or Bubs, plus lots of Baby, Sweetie or RyRy.
We nauseate pretty much everyone.
My ex was Zebra. Don’t ask. Everything was zebras. The Happy Zebra, Mega Zebra, and Xeeb (just for pronunciation) In fact, if something was good, it was zebrific. Yes, I scared myself for a while there. We had some other really, really bad ones for a while…some that make me nauseous just thinking about: Glow bug, (believe it or not: Glow Zebra was eventually evolved) snow bug, Snuggle bear, Snugglupogus, and she’d call me “Snuggie” when she wanted to piss me off.
My fiancee and I just stick to hon, or honey…I call her sweetie from time to time. Life is much more sane.
Pips. I don’t know why.
I call him sugarbee. He’ll call me duckydoodle, or wuvvedest widdle wuv, or (more often) “you.” “Duckydoodle” came from a 1930s valentine; I have no idea where I got “sugarbee.”
“Tasty thing” is a nickname? Somehow I think it loses it in the translation
Yeah, it does, as the word “lekker” can mean a lot of things. Tasty, for food. Pleasant, for the weather. Sexy, for a woman. But in this case, it’s a combination of all three meanings. 
“Baby”, “Honey”, and the occasional “Sweety”. I use Sweety quite a lot for people other than my SO, so that most likely doesn’t count. I just call her Jenn and she calls me Robert (not Rob, and she is the only one who doesn’t call me Rob. Weird.)
I did call her Snookums once, but she shot me a look that melted butter from 20 paces. Not good.
I still call my wife Princess a lot. When we first dated, she called me angel. I guess my wings fell off soon after 'cause she hasn’t called me that in years.
Petal or Pet or Pettie. We sometimes even say it when we’re really annoyed with each other, too!
The only pet names I have for the Spouse are “Spouse” and “Lovemylove.” I call him both of those in public places, which confuses passers-by. Another couple we used to game with also calls each other “Spouse,” which we all thought was rather amusing.
I actually have names for most of the important people I’ve loved. My first True Love is “the Imzadi,” although usually not to his face - he lives in another state.
I love this thread, ya’ll are so cleva–
For my hubby:
(Boo or Schmoo)bear
(Boo or Schmoo)berry
Bunny
Bunnybuns
Babs
Lover
Hubby
Bubby
His for me:
1st 4 above,
HONEY (especially when we’re arguing)
Shinin’ Eyes (no, he’s not Irish)
I think that’s mostly it. But don’t get me started on my cats.
I call my wife chicken butt. It doesn’t get the response I’m looking for. Hmmmm.