Personally, I have never gotten the hype by the names “baby,” “babe,” “bae,” “honey,” it feels forced to me. I’ve seen those TikTok videos where as a joke people will address their spouses by their real names and the spouses get mad and say something like “my family and friends can call me that, but you can’t.” I’ve never gotten the seriousness of it. If we already know we’re boyfriend and girlfriend, or husband and wife, why should I have to address you by those names? Again, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with saying them, but using real names should become more common as well.
TikTok is not real life. Nobody I know doesn’t use real names when addressing their spouse. I’ve literally never even met someone who would act the way you’re describing.
We’ve been married 15 years. If we use a first name to address each other it usually means we are out in public and trying to find one another. And that is only because if I shout ‘QD(cutie)’ 5 women will turn around thinking it is their SO so it isn’t super useful.
If you bugged our house you would think my wife’s name is Dear, QD, Darling, Beautiful, or “HOLY SHIT CHECK THIS OUT”. There is almost no chance you’d catch either of our real names on that tape.
Wife did that at our wedding, shouted, “POGIE!” at the group of guys I was standing with and we all looked at the same time.
(Guys were all Americans, girls all Filipinos. “Pogie” = “hottie” in Tagalog.)
One of my friends does it. It is a real thing.
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TikTok was an example. But those are real couples. I don’t know where you’re from but using real names is definitely not as common
Sounds like they are joking. The situations are obviously engineered and not reality when using a camera to record stuff for reactions and engagement.
using pet names, titles, or other things like that are useful in media when you want to convey the relationship.
Like when a movie has a man greet a woman. If he just said ‘hi jill’ you wouldn’t know who she is to him. If he says ‘hey babe’ you assume they’re in a relationship.
So idk what is actually more common in real situations but it’s easy to assume people only use pet names when you’re not going to see anyone’s actual one on one conversations