Ask Lemmy

My wife and I have been together over 40 years. I call her "old woman" and she calls me "old man".

Long time ago I learned people from croatia say "oko moja" to their partners which just translates to "my eye" this is silly and clever in a way I can't stop thinking about.

I think the best ones stem from deep shared history. One time, I spilled a little blue paint on the toe of my shoe. For a few months whenever I wore those shoes my partner would occasionally say something like "here comes ol' blue toe" just to get a chuckle out of me. It was stupid and perfect.

Eventually, that transformed into "blue guy" with occasional mutations: big blue guy, big blue, or just plain "blue".

We have other nicknames for each other too, but that one has been around for years and is one of my favorites.

A key is being able to lovingly poke fun at each other, and not take yourselves too seriously. Sounds like you've got both of those things, so just keep an eye out for an opportunity to make your own!

My crumpet

Possum.

I've always liked dearheart, too.

But I mostly call my wife Killer.

Pumpkin

In my former married life, my wife was a fair bit shorter than me, so I'd occasionally call her 'low-pockets'. When we got a dog, he became 'no-pockets'. When we had a baby, he became 'small pockets'. I did only actually use these terms a couple of times as a gag though.

Ones I use: “My liege”, pal, beans, Slagathor, buns, honey buns, honey bunches of oats, oats, oat milk, oat milk latte, latte, soy latte, soy, soy sauce (you have to do this in a progression or else it won’t make any sense)

Big Dawg or Heckin Chungus Wife

Just kidding. I used to put on a raspy smoker's voice and day "Sugah Tits"

Thrustmaster

I like being overly dramatic, like getting names from old tragedies.

Oh Tristan!

What is it my dear Iseult?

The dog shat on the floor again...

Little Poop, Little Fart, Little Terror, Little Pug (as in the dog). Believe it or not these are all extremely common in Dutch!

Edit: to be fair they sound better in dutch

I’ve always loved mon petit chou chou which is roughly “my little cabbage cabbage” from French. I also like jannu, which I think is “my soul” in Urdu? Also solnyshko, little sun, from the Russian, is very fun.

"Stinky* is fun.

you know. there are pet name people and not pet name people. its actually like a spectrum on how natural it is to use it. my wife is a bit more pet name than me but she will call like women she converses with honey and sugar to (no she is not from the south. no idea where she picked up the habit). I barely like using names even. Only using them to get attention or in multi person situations.

Suggestions, courtesy of MST3k:

Slab Bulkhead

Bridge Largemeat

Punt Speedchunk

Butch Deadlift

Hold Bigflank

Splint Chesthair

Flint Ironstag

Bolt Vanderhuge

Thick McRunfast

Blast Hardcheese

Buff Drinklots

Crunch Slamchest

Fist Rockbone

Stump Beefknob

Smash Lampjaw

Punch Rockgroin

Buck Plankchest

Stump Junkman

Dirk Hardpec

Rip Steakface

Slate Slabrock

Crud Bonemeal

Brick Hardmeat

Rip Slagcheek

Punch Sideiron

Gristle McThornbody

Slate Fistcrunch

Buff Hardback

Bob Johnson

Blast Thickneck

Crunch Buttsteak

Slab Squatthrust

Lump Beefbroth

Touch Rustrod

Beef Blastbody

Big McLargehuge

Smoke Manmuscle

Beat Punchmeat

Hack Blowfist

Roll Fizzlebeef

Senpai

Bonus points if you make an overly exaggerated effort to talk like a caricature of an anime romcom protagonist.

Mon Petit Chou French for "my little cabbage".

May I suggest the Korean word 여보? You can try both the 애교 style and the serious style to see what works. It's sort, grabs the listener's attention quickly and I think easy to pronounce. There are probably plenty of videos floating around on how to do it.

It's quite hard to find something that doesnt sound silly. We kinda failed with my partner so we use "ange" for angel in french, which is cringe af, but we add an n- prefix that makes it sound silly anyway, so nange, to lean into the dumb side of the force. Otherwise the classical "chéri(e)" (which i believe is the equivalent of "darling" in use, but literally speaking means cherished) is the one that feels the most natural. But anyway, i dont think you can find a better one than serendipitous saccharide !

mister muffin

Sugar britches, sugar tits, sugar biscuits

I'm officially Sweet Potato.

Lusty Chad

bangwI', qochwI', or par'Machkai

I thought it was hilarious to actually stop using anything other their formal name with my ex.

Droopy Bollocks

Pookie for one of you, Snookums for the other. I’m not going to tell you which way round the names go; you have to work some of this shit out for yourself.

Goose (like silly goose) is one of my favourites.

Sausage - my bf's one size fits all term for those he loves, from actual sausages to his pets and me

My wife's contact name in my phone is "Hot Stuff".

homeslice, habibi, elskling

I've used "darling" a lot, especially when I was dating a non-binary person.

My current gf and I use "goober" or "goobie" a lot as an old inside joke thats just part of us now.

Pudding, sweetness, lover, cutie, my beloved, man of my heart, man of my dreams, my dream come true

Man I'm ruining out of ridiculous sounding names lol

Something overly masculine, like hunky or studly.

Sweet thang?

Honey pie, honey lamb, honey child