DAILY DIRT: Just what do you call your little Ladybug?

Daily Dirt for Thursday Jan. 16, 2025

Those “affectionate” nicknames can only strengthen a relationship, says a particular survey … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 1,174 of The Daily Dirt.

1. If you’re married, or have a significant other, you likely have a nickname for one another, right?

In my case, my wife — and pretty much the rest of the free world — calls me “Dirt,” which ties into my love of dirt-track racing and the old Stevie Dirt blogs.

In return, I usually refer to my wife as simply “The Luckiest Woman on the Face of the Earth”. Normally, she smiles, but when she doesn’t I quickly work in a “Honey” to go along with the remark.

A global survey conducted by preply.com asked people in 14 different languages to try and discover the most popular affectionate nicknames around the world. The key findings?

• — Using an affectionate nickname with a romantic partner is done in 87 percent of relationships.
• — According to 79 percent of people, using an affectionate nickname strengthens a relationship. 
• — “Babe,” “Love,” “Baby,” “Honey” and “Dear” are the top five affectionate nicknames used globally.
• — “Babe,” “Honey” and “Baby” are the top three affectionate nicknames in English.

“We sent the survey out in 14 different languages: Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish and Ukrainian,” writes Matt Zajechowski. “Respondents ranged in age from 18 to 76 years old, and were 49 percent female, 49 percent male and 2 percent nonbinary.”

Here are some of the top picks from a variety of non-English speaking countries:

• Chinese: “Baby”
• Dutch: “Sweetheart”
• French: “Babe”
• German: “Treasure”
• Greek: “My love”
• Japanese: “Honey”
• Italian: “Love”
• Polish: “Baby”
• Portuguese: “Baby”
• Ukrainian: “Ladybug”
• Spanish: “Love”

I think I might try “Ladybug” on Mrs. Dirt. What’s the worst that could happen? J. Robert Gough might have a new house guest!

2. Did you know (Part 248)

• That Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream is now offering Chocolate and Fudge Swirl, plus Vanilla and Fudge Brownie. Mmmmmm.
• That Dr. Pepper Blackberry will drop in February and be a permanent addition to the drink’s lineup.
• That Burger King is testing Nacho Chicken Fries with a tortilla-chip breading in selected markets.
• That the Vanilla Frosty has returned to Wendy’s, presumably for a limited time.
• That if Hank Aaron’s 755 career home runs were subtracted from his career hit total he would still have more than 3,000 career hits (3,016). Now that’s a superstar.

3. This week’s best of “Found on Facebook”:

• “Today I broke my personal record for most consecutive days lived.”
• “OK, hear me out: An old-fashioned candy necklace, but with Tums and Ibuprofen.”
• “Nine out of 10 dentists refuse to work on a Grizzly unless it has been given a strong anesthetic. There’s safety in numb bears.”
• “Just saw three people jogging outside and it inspired me to get up and close the blinds.”
• “I posted a photo of myself at the gym, and it was flagged and removed as ‘Fake News’.”

Steve Thought O’ The Day — Think. It’s what you do if you can’t thwim.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. They don’t call him the Doctor of Love for nothin’!