While some people steer away from pet names and nicknames, most of us love to use a specific term of endearment with our significant others.
I don’t know about you guys, but to be honest I’ve never been too into default nicknames. Things like “sweetie” or “baby” have never struck my fancy and seem so impersonal and not heartfelt in the slightest.
Also, who knows if his ex called him that?
So I always try to be unique with the pet names I use with both my friends and my boyfriend.
One quick way to do this and that will be absolutely off the mill – unless you are from one of the countries where these are the languages, obviously – is to use a nick in another tongue.
Some of the most asked about languages are Spanish, Italian and Japanese and while they are all very different, hopefully one will be to both your and your beau’s liking.
Spanish Nicknames
Spanish is by far one of the most cutesy languages when it comes to pet names; I can tell you that from a native standpoint, we like to make absolutely everything cute and adorable.
Some of the most common nicknames in Spanish are ‘Mi Amor’ that translates directly into “my love” and ‘Corazón’ that literally means heart but is closer in meaning to sweetheart.
In some Spanish speaking countries we like to use ‘mi rey’, which means “my king” but it isn’t meant in a royal way, it’s just as common as ‘Handsome’ or ‘Honey’. Looking for something even sweeter?
What about Osito (little bear) or Chiquito (little one)? While Chiquito may seem weird, in Spanish it leans toward babe and doesn’t have to do with actually being small.
So to sum up here are the nicks discussed with their English translations:
Mi alma – My Soul
Amante – Dear love
Mi Amor – My Love
Corazón – Sweetheart
Mi Rey – My King
Osito – Little Bear
Chiquito – Little One/babe
Guapo – Good looking
Hermoso/Hermosa – Handsome
Papi – Daddy
Novio – Sweetheart
Cariño – Dear or Darling
Mi vida – My life
Mi sol – My sunshine
Patito – Duckling
Amigo – Friend
Italian Nicknames
If you want something a bit more romantic I suggest going for an Italian nick name since Italian is, after all, the language of love and it has a sweet sound to it that differs from most languages.
Some that you may have heard before are ‘Amore’ that again translates into love, ‘Amore Mio’ which is – you guessed it! – ‘My Love’ or Bello which means handsome.
If you want to kick it up a notch think about Pasticcino or Cucciolo, which mean cupcake and puppy respectively. For something a little less sweet you can opt for Ciccino (handsome) or Bambino (baby).
So to sum up here are the nicks discussed with their English translations:
Amore – Love
Amore Mio – My Love
Bello – Handsome
Pasticcino – Cupcake
Cucciolo – Puppy
Ciccino – Handsome
Bambino – Baby
Caro – Dear
Tesoro – Treasure
Cuore mio – My heart
marito – Husband
dolcezza – Sweetness
zucchero – Sugar
Miele – Honey
Japanese Nicknames
Another language I get asked about a lot is Japanese and this is where it gets a tad complicated.
Japanese people rarely use pet names and if you just go around translating words it will be both weird and quite possibly incorrect. If you really want to give your boyfriend a cute Japanese nickname you have two options.
The first and easiest would be to pick a word you would use in English to refer to them, such as ‘bear’ or ‘prince’ and translate it into ‘Kuma’ or ‘Hoshi’, because like I mentioned above, there are no equivalents for handsome or honey.
But if you really want to go for a Japanese term of endearment, I’ll break it down for you. The most common nicknames are those with ‘Tan’ or ‘Nyan’ added to the end of names, such as Andrew-tan or Ryan-tan; those suffixes are cutesy, baby-like versions of the normal and polite – San.
You can also use the suffix – Kun after cutting his name in half.
This sounds terribly complicated, but here is an example: If your boyfriend’s name were ‘Leonard’ you would call him ‘Leo-kun‘; it’s kind of like using his shortened name plus – Kun.
Whatever nickname you choose, it will be perfect. The point of pet names is to show your appreciation for someone you are in love with, so why not have some fun with it?
