I "used" to call my DH Blondie or blond one. It used to just pop out of my mouth without putting any thought into it. I can't remember the last time I called him that. When I met him, he had the most unnatural bleached blond hair. Personally, I had a manager call me Nickie. He was soooooooo nice, he is remembered fondly...so I must not mind nick names if if comes with a good heart. :0)

I use so many nicknames throughout the day for my son and cat, but I either get called Rob or Robin, or Robbie. Just don't call me Ruben. I hate that one. My mom always says "Call me whatever you want, just don't call me late to dinner".

My husband's name is Joseph but he has been called Jody all his life, so that is what I call him. I do use nicknames....mostly for pets....but, animals are mostly the ones I deal with on a daily basis. Like my dog, Gertie, I call, "Dirty". I have a friend who calls me "Maryland". I don't mind.

I was better known by a nickname from the time I was 12 to when I started using my real first name again regularly at around age 20. On a trip to Hawaii when I was 17 I was actually recognized when someone, a stranger to me but from mutual circles on the mainland, overheard my nickname. He came up and said you're ____ from ____! Nicknames were really popular in the 60's. So much so that I was friends with people I wouldn't have a clue how to find today should they still be alive.

Different people (guys) had different pet names for me at various times also. Unless I really don't like someone I am OK with endearments. Unlike some people, it doesn't bother me in the least if a waitress calls me honey or sweetie or whatever.

Never use nicknames, except for the grandkids, and those will be dropped when they are older. Ya know--names like smoochie-woochie, and sugar-doodle.

My father had a 'childish' nickname for me until I was well into adulthood. That's the only name he used when I was a child, but after I had my own kids he seemed to stop using it, or maybe it was because we moved out of state for a couple of years, and when we returned he just started using my given name, as everyone else does. We had a gathering for his 80th birthday last week, and I think having everyone together in one room again must have sparked a memory, because as I walked up to greet him, he called me the long ago nickname, without realizing it. :)

My better half calls me "sweet pea" and I call him "hon".

mamagoose, it's great, isn't it. My dad still calls me "my girl" haha and I get a dirty look from my other sister because he also calls her that. She's possessive.

No one calls me a nickname. I am always called Sue. Sometimes I call Alyssa :Lyssie or Giggles. My husband had a nickname growing up and many thought that was his name, no, Johnnie is not his name. So if someone calls him that you know they knew him from childhood.

Sue

I've always called my hubby "Love". Since there are so many women named Linda, I was given the name of Linners by a dear friend, and that is what I get called. My dad always called me Junior. He had wanted a boy. LOL I call our daughter "Daughter".

My husband has a nickname for everything! He has been calling me "Geeb" for before we were married...Meaning that I am a mix of a Geek and a Dweeb,,,it's all in fun.

See, jewels, that is the kind of nickname I'd be down with. One time my husband called be "Babe" I said "no". My eldest daughter, 14, calls children "child".

DH and I have nicknames for each other but we don't use them in front of other people. All in good humor. :)

My dad had a nickname for me and the first time I heard him use the same one for my niece, it bothered me. But I adored her so accepted it.

We also have a nick for our daughter but she doesn't like it so we don't use it anymore.

My husband is called by his nickname more than his real name by me and close friends. I have shortened versions of my real name, but I have been called Raven or some version of Raven for years so I answer to that as much as my real name. I had one friend, he was from France, he always changed Raven into Ravenous. My grandchildren and nieces and nephews all have a name they call me instead of granny or aunt.

For the last almost 50 years, my husband calls me skinny linny. I call him young man from time to time, Not sure when that started. I used to call him Joey but it evolved to Joe over the years. Many of our old friends still call him Joey.

I don't like nicknames and don't use them When choosing our kids names, we picked names that couldn't be shortened and, as far as I know, they never have been. I do call them Sweetie however. My DH and I don't have nicknames or pet names for each other.

DH and I don't have pet names, either. His name is very common, and he answers to either the full name or the normal shortened version.

I am Anne, and in childhood I HATED being called Annie. There are a couple of people now that call me that, and I don't mind.

As a small child, somehow my older brother and sister started calling me Bug Juice. It got shortened to just Bug, then morphed into Annie Bug. I'll have to remind my sister of that, she'll laugh.

I dislike nicknames and I'm thinking of ones I've known including Missy, Biff, Junior, Trey, Goofy, Lefty, Sly, etc. But I do like names that have regular versions and shorter versions, the opposite of what you've said blfenton. Such as James-Jim, Robert-Bob, Elizabeth-Beth, etc.

We didn't use any of those particular ones but our kids all have names of that sort, where there's both long and short versions.

I've always found it awkward when people do have names with two popular versions but insist on the long version only - "call me Michael, not Mike" or "I'm Robert, not Bob or Rob". Similarly, people who have long names that offer no shortcut - "Yes, my first name is Abernathy, you can call me Abernathy". Or, "my name is Courtney Amanda, you can call me Courtney Amanda". In such cases, I avoid using the name altogether, too much trouble.

My father's nickname for me was Carabubble, sometimes shortened to Bubble. Sadly, at some point while I was growing up my little brother used the name to tease me and I told my father to stop using it, which he did:(

No nicknames here. Hubby and I call each other sweetie, but that's it. Mom always called me by a shortened name of my name.

Never got into pet names either calling or being called. As Elmer touched on it seems like a lot of people in the teens to 30s want to use full names now rather than a nickname, for instance Andrew, Cynthia, Katherine or Daniel. Previous generations seemed to have a big thing for "baby talk" and in a way I respect this "rebellion" if you want to call it such. Davie, Katie, etc are out of fashion for a lot of people these days. And something I noticed growing up is southerners seem to feel compelled to put the "y" or "ie" on the end of all names, whether the person likes or dislikes being addressed in that manner. Not really sure why. But they also seem to use it so much more anyway. Most southerners I know have a "daaaaaaaaady" rather than "dad".

Ive always called my SO "grandpa". It started from me teasing him about some of his habits,like obsessing over the weather reports,and his tendency to fuss at me a lot about little nonimportant things. I told him he was acting like a grumpy old grandpa,and the name stuck. Others think it's because of the age difference between us,but it's not. He calls me bear. Not very romantic,as he says it's because I snore like one...:-/

I've had several nicknames,usually at work. At one job I was known as "pinky"at a couple others "amylou". Pinky because if my love of all things pink. I don't know where people get amylou,but different people have called me that for years. People learn my name, and then just add the lou at the end automatically. A few people call me "butterbean" since i sell them butterbeans and purple hull peas from my sisters farm every year. And the last and most memorable,but the one I would most like to forget ,"hot buns." When I worked at a plant that made car door panels,I once wore a t-shirt that my sister had brought me from some trip she took. It said "pinkys bakery" above a picture of two buns,underneath which read "hot buns" in large hot pink scroll. I guess I was asking for it,but it was the only clean t-shirt I had that night. But it was all in good fun,and I answer to all my pet names/nicknames.

Come to think of it a lot of computer folk have nicknames. Some are known internationally by them. Especially those in security that came from the hacker/cracker culture. Most people in motorcycle clubs take on "road names" also. Same in a lot of sports too.

My brother started calling me Sheesh when he was learning to talk, so I've been Sheesh in my family ever since. Ive been calling hub "Buzz" for maybe twenty years now because he's an old buzzard, but mainly because he still gives me a buzz.

Our six kids all have standard traditional names with nicknames, and half a dozen other nicknames in addition. Three kids have nicknames that stuck from before they were born, and have become the names we primarily call them - and they're in their thirties and forties. They're called Uncle So and so and Auntie So and So by all the grandkids.

" As Elmer touched on it seems like a lot of people in the teens to 30s want to use full names now rather than a nickname"

cynic, in my mind as I was typing my comment were three friends/peers I know who, like me, are their mid-60s - a Joseph, a William and a Michael. While I might say "Hi (or Hello) Bill, John, Gary", etc, when encountering others I know, for these with the formal names, I seemed to unconsciously develop the habit of saying "Hey there, what's going on?"

There's not a lot you can do with "Sue". One man I dated insisted on calling me "Susan". (Why?) Another called me "Doll" once or twice -- good ploy if you can't keep your 'dollies' straight, eh?

It's hard to take seriously a grown man who introduces himself by his childhood name: "Chip", "Sonny", "Bud", "Butch", "Bobby" (or formal given names plus the "y" or "ie").

After knowing one neighbor as "Bill" for 25 years, after the couple moved away we were told he was now "William". When he immigrated to the US, people had *assumed* he went by the diminutive, and he'd accepted that. However, it had always rankled because it has an unpleasant meaning in his native language.

Now that I am old and read the death notices, I am entertained by those where almost everyone mentioned has a nickname.

"It's hard to take seriously a grown man who introduces himself by his childhood name: "Chip", "Sonny", "Bud", "Butch", "Bobby""

Not just hard. For me it's impossible.

DH almost always calls me 'my love', while I call him quite an assortment of names depending on who his at any given moment....mostly in that sorta true, but not, fun. Grumpy or Grumpy ol' man is one; as he takes great pride in being one frequently. He is also 'my hero', 'my love' and 'silly boy'. I am Nanny since the time I became a very young grandmother, with DGChild in my care....then more grands and their friends.I am ready to pass the title on, tho....any takers?

Only our Son has a nickname....named a junior of Dad....so sorta required. Girls had short, firm names.

Reading this made me remember an old boss called me Poodly Snoot. I have no idea where that came from.

My MIL is from the south and all of her siblings and relatives had nicknames totally unrelated to their real names. I was in the family for many years before I found out that the uncles had other names than what we called them.

"It's hard to take seriously a grown man who introduces himself by his childhood name: "Chip", "Sonny", "Bud", "Butch", "Bobby"

That's seems an odd statement to me. Most men I know who are comfortable with their childhood names or other nicknames are alpha males. Guys that are quite comfortable in their own skin. Don't have to bully, have a lot of confidence and are chivalrous. Old school men.

Chip seems like a totally normal adult name.

Maybe I've know too many Chips over my lifespan? Bud and Buddy -- old family friend of my parent's generation -- we'd never think of calling him anything else.

As for me, I'm Diann (official) or Di -- I do have a couple other names I answer to, that I chose myself. (I belonged to the Society for Creative Anachronisms, and we came up with medieval personae we used at our events, along with appropriate names. To this day, some people still prefer to call me by that name! I'm fine with it!)

No, I don't answer to Artemis (a form of Diane) in personal life.

I don't mind being called Hun or Honey by waitstaff, although I would find it weird coming from people I know personally.

I despise ever being called "Dear", by anyone. The nuns at school used to call any student they were mad at, "Dear", prior to ripping them a new one. When I read "DH" here on GW, I mentally translate it to Darling Husband, and so forth. NEVER would I disrespect someone you are talking about lovingly as "Dear". Mentally or otherwise. It's an ingrained reflex.

Oh, I do agree.. don't call me Late for Dinner...

It has been my experience that a man using his childhood name is indeed confident -- confident that Mom was right about his being 'special'. (Your experience may differ.)

LOL, I guess, in reality, I haven't thought much of pet names as others do. Just don't call me babe.

Chisue, your doll comment made me laugh.....and think. I had a boyfriend who called me that and totally fit your analogy.

I belong to a couple of online groups. I despise when someone comments on something and calls the person (me on occasion) "hun". I don't know you, and I don't want you to call me hun.

I don't know that I agree with Chhisue or Elmer regarding nicknames or dimunitives. Off the top of my head I can think of the following, I might not like them all, but it's not hard to take them seriously:

Byron Raymond "Whizzer' White

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy

Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin

Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt

Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower

Richard Bruce "Dick" Chaney

Edward Moore "Ted or Teddy" Kennedy

Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich

Charles Ellis "Chuck" Schumer

Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager

William Franklin "Billy " Graham

mojo, you're agreeing with me, the majority of what you've listed are what I described as common and recognizable short versions of longer names, much easier to use than a more awkward long one -

Bill for William,

Teddy for Theodore (also Edward),

Dick for Richard,

Chuck for Charles.

Buzz, Gus and Ike were all military guys, where nicknames unrelated to real names have long been common.

No Buster, Booty, or Hotshot on your list.

I call one of my sons HunnyBun. I started out calling him HunnyButt, but he objected to that when he got older. And I call HIS son, my grandson, LittleBun.

My other son is JohnniePop.

Husband had a couple of nicknames for me when we were dating and in early married life but have forgotten what they were. lol He just calls me by my given name these days. He never liked his first name and goes by his middle name, Richard and that's what I call him but his friends all call him Rich, I never have.

We do have some nicknames for our kids. Firstborn son, Kody, was called 'sonshine' for several years, ages 2-5, for his happy ways but that faded with time and he's now just Kody and is 52 years old.

Middle daughter, Kandra Sue's nicknames are Kankan or Susie and she doesn't mind, celebrating her 50th birthday tomorrow.

The funny one is our youngest daughter, Kyla. When just a tiny baby she would make the funniest little squeaking noises and we started calling her 'mouse'. She's now 46 and we still call her 'mouse' and sometimes her husband calls her that as well. Many years ago when she was on the swim team and swimming in some of her first meets at the age of 3-1/2 to 6 we would be yelling 'go mouse go' when she was in her lane and people would look at us like we were nuts. :) BTW she won her first ribbon in the age group 6 and under at the age of a couple months before turning 4, and swam backstroke at that time as she didn't like putting her face in the water. :)