Whilst names such as ‘gorgeous’ and ‘beautiful’ are likely to win over your loved one, ‘babe’, ‘baby girl’ and ‘sweet cheeks’ are more likely to leave you in the doghouse.
The research was conducted by Siteopia.com and they found that the reasons people dislike some pet names were because they sound too false, they’re soppy or risk offending.
A Siteopia.com spokesman said, “Pet names between partners are usually used as a way to show a little regular affection but some are clearly better than others.
“Whether using the more common terms like ‘babe’ or ‘darling’ or some of the more modern terms, the research shows the ones we choose for our partner can have very differing impacts.
“There’s a lot of power in a name and each one throws up different connotations so it’s important to know which ones will flatter a partner and which are definitely not going to have the right effect.”
Despite knowing how much their partner hates a certain pet name, one in seven Brits will still grace their partner with it as a tease.
Men seem to be the braver sex though, as they admitted to have a name for their partner that they would only use once they were out of earshot.
A brave one in fourteen men would refer to their partner as ‘the ball and chain’ and 3 per cent of men refer to their lady as ‘The Wicked Witch of the West’.
Fortunately, the more common terms used by men are ‘The Wife’, ‘The Mrs’ and ‘The Boss’.
One in five Brits call their partner by their full name all the time whilst the same amount has a name that they would only use between the two of them.
Embarrassingly, one in ten Brits have had their private nicknames discovered. Forty four per cent of them have let the name slip around friends and 30 per cent have had it discovered by friends going through their texts.
The spokesman said, “Of course personal nicknames, when born out of affection, are a nice thing for partners to have between one another. Although as we’ve seen they aren’t always names we want shared publicly.”
“There’s a lot to be read from a name and sometimes using too strongly clichéd or overly-soppy pet names for someone we like will just be seen as insincere.”
There is a silver lining; American names such as ‘baby girl’ and ‘baby doll’ don’t seem to have caught on with Brits as they both featured near the top of the most hated list.
The Top 20 Most Hated Pet Names:
1.Babe
2.Sweet cheeks
3.Snookums
4.Baby doll
5.Baby girl
6.Muffin
7.Ducky
8.Baby cakes
9.Sexy pants
10.Pudding
11.Angel pie
12.Pumpkin
13.Puppy
14.Sugar lips
15.Treacle
16.Baby
17.Pickle
18.Honeybun
19.Sugar pie
20.Cupcake
Do you use any of these pet names with your partner? Let us know what you think by commenting below or tweeting us @FemaleFirst_UK
Cara Mason
by Cara Mason
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