Here at Cashco Financial, we’re feeling the love. Your response to The Name Game has been overwhelmingly adorable! We received over 500 entries for this contest in the first two days it was posted! Don't forget, the prize for this contest will be a mens' or women's diamond ring! But all this love got us wondering, why do people call each other these pet names in the first place? Where did they come from and what do they mean?
Turns out, pet names may be more important and long lasting than you realize!
Pet names can be found in pretty much every culture across the globe and throughout history. In Ireland, your nickname for the one you love might be “mo chuisle" or “my pulse". In Japan, men sometimes call the woman they care for “tamago gata no kao” or “egg with eyes”. Apparently, in Japan having an oval, egg-shaped face is seen as very attractive. In Russia, a popular pet name is “moya golubushka" or “my dove". The point is, by coming up with these sweet and often private nicknames for one another, it allows a couple to develop a more intimate feeling in their relationship. It means you can build your own private language as a couple; words meant just for you and your honey-bear, sweetie-pie. A study conducted by sociologist Pepper Schwartz showed that among couples who said they were in a very happy relationship, 76 percent of them reported that they had pet names for each other. Pet names are an everyday way of showing affection and letting the person you’re with know that they are loved and appreciated.
There are recorded instances of pet names as far back as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when you might have called your significant other “honeysop” or “ding-ding” or “sweetikin”. Even the most serious of historical figures has been known to go for a pet name! In the early 1800s, Beethoven wrote a series of steamy love letters to a woman he called only “Immortal Beloved”. British statesman Winston Churchill called his wife “Darling Clemmie” their entire lives. Elvis Presley made up a name for his wife, Priscilla - “Nungen”, which he claimed translated to “little one” in their own, private language.
The most common and popular pet names we received for this contest included baby/babe, bear, sweet pea, boo-boo and sweetie.
Here are the top ten most unique pet names contributed, brought to you by Cashco financial:
Whatever you may call the one you love, don’t be afraid to say it often! Please check out our Facebook page,
facebook.com/pawn.princess, or follow us on twitter for more!