Terms of endearment

The other day my older daughter looked at me and with a big huffy breath said, “Mom, why do you never call ME baby doll?”

This caught me off guard. Apparently I call her sister baby doll, but not her. And it’s true, I typically call my older daughter sweet pea and my younger daughter baby doll. But why? “Why Mom?”

I’m not sure, really; pet names are a funny thing. I’d never really given them a lot of thought before. But her question got me to thinking…Why do we call our loved ones what we do?

And do some of the common terms of endearment even make sense?

When I started asking around, I noticed some patterns. A lot of terms of endearment have to do with all things sweet:

Honey

gumdrop

cupcake


sugarplum

or maybe they're not so sweet after all?

or they have to do with all things lovely, for instance

buttercup

angel
sweet pea

or it is sweet pea?

Which leads me to ask, why do we lovingly call people various fruits and vegetables?

sweet potato

cumquat

pumpkin

Or sometimes even legumes:

peanut

Although I think this pet name is actually usually referring to size, much like

munchkin

or bug
or baby doll

I actually Wiki-ed “terms of endearment” which stated: “Some terms may be combined for added emphasis, e.g. honey bunny, and convey a sense of greater affection. “

So if you’re really loved you're called something like:

love bug

or sweet heart

or sweet cheeks, or sugar pie, or moon beam, or puddin’ pop or the like.

Wiki also stated that, “The longer the string of terms, the greater the sense of affection is conveyed.”

SO, I may just start calling my older daughter sweet sugar plum sunshine and see how she takes to that.

But what I want to know is what are you called by your loved ones?