Pet names are usually just for couples—until a child starts listening in.
A woman has gone viral on TikTok after sharing the adorable reason she believed her parents’ names were “beautiful” and “handsome” when she was a child—she saw them call each other those terms of endearment for over a decade. Since her video was posted, it has received over 450,000 likes and over 1,600 comments.
“When I was really young, I thought my dad’s real name was ‘handsome’ and my mom’s real name was ‘beautiful’ because that’s what their contacts for each other were in their phones for 10 years,” she captioned the video. “I remember being in the car with my dad and seeing ‘beautiful’ calling on the car screen and thinking, ‘Ooh, mommy’s calling.”
She added in the comments: “They always called each other beautiful and handsome around the house, too. I swear they never call each other by their real names.”
The clip posted by @maya.qualls05 resonated with thousands of viewers, with many sharing similar childhood experiences in the comments.
“My brother used to call my mom ‘ma bichette,’ which means ‘my lil doe,’ a very common nickname in France, because he thought it was his name since my dad called her like that,” one person wrote.
“Once I was babysitting a little girl, and I asked her what her mom’s first name was,” another wrote. “She confidently said, ‘my love’ because that’s what her dad called her mom.”
Not every couple uses affectionate nicknames, though. One commenter shared a stark contrast: “Even when my parents were happily married, they had each other’s government name with a period like a business associate,” they quipped.
There’s more to pet names than you think
The use of pet names in relationships is a widespread phenomenon, and according to a study by Superdrug Online Doctor, 87 percent of Americans use pet names for their significant other.
The research found that men were more likely than women to use affectionate nicknames, with 85 percent of men and 76 percent of women reporting having a special term for their partner. Interestingly, couples who used pet names were more likely to be satisfied in their relationships. In the U.S., those who used terms like “pretty,” “beautiful,” and “gorgeous” were the most content, with 90 percent or more expressing relationship satisfaction.
But not all pet names are well-received. The study found that “papi” and “daddy” were the most disliked terms, with 73 percent of respondents agreeing that “papi” is best avoided.
One commenter on the users post summed up the shared experience sweetly: “My sister used to call our mom ‘honey pie’ by accident because of how often our dad called our mom that.”
Newsweek reached out to @maya.qualls05 for comment via TikTok.
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