What do you call your partner - darling, sweetheart, babe? I have been called a little owl, a swan and even a “panda-fish.” No, I’m not a supernatural, shape-shifting creature or a character in a children’s storybook. I’ve just been in a few relationships where cutesy, affectionate nicknames emerged as inside jokes.
你是如何稱呼你的伴侶的？親愛的，甜心，寶貝？我曾獲得過(guò)小貓頭鷹，小天鵝，甚至“熊貓魚兒”這樣的愛稱。然而我并不是超自然生物，也不是異形怪或童話里的角色。我只不過(guò)談過(guò)幾次戀愛，這些可愛，親昵的稱呼成為了戀人之間的小玩笑。

Turns out, there are many more inventive terms of endearment used around the world, including 'egg with eyes', 'my little cabbage' and 'cute nose'.
其實(shí)，在世界各地人們有許多更富創(chuàng)意的愛稱用語(yǔ)，包括“長(zhǎng)眼睛的小雞蛋”，“我的小包菜”，“可愛的小鼻鼻”。

Plenty of my friends have developed nicknames with their romantic partners. I asked the question on Facebook and got a broad assortment of answers: former boyfriends who knew each other as “Tiger and Teddy.” An American man who dated a Chinese woman told me he called her “Popo,”,which means “wife” or “broken broken,” depending on your intonation – and she called him “Benben,” which he says means something like “dumb dumb,” referring to his lackluster mastery of the Chinese language at the time.
我的許多朋友也和戀人之間相互取了昵稱。我在社交網(wǎng)上也問(wèn)過(guò)網(wǎng)友相關(guān)的問(wèn)題，得到五花八門的回答：一對(duì)男同情侶相互稱呼為“小腦腐和小泰迪”。一個(gè)與中國(guó)女子談戀愛的美國(guó)男子告訴我，他叫她“老婆（/破破）”，根據(jù)不同的語(yǔ)調(diào)，意指“妻子”或“被破壞的東西”。而她叫他“笨笨”，他說(shuō)意思是“蠢笨的”，意指他那時(shí)中文學(xué)得很差。

There seem to be a variety of languages with pet names, too. According to the website of the popular language-learning software Rosetta Stone, the French say “Mon Petit Chou” (my little cabbage or cream puff), the Russians say “Vishenka” (cherry), the Dutch call girlfriends “Dropje” (candy) and in Brazil you can say “Meu Chuchu,” where “chuchu” is a vegetable. In Spain I heard the term “Media Naranja,” meaning half-orange, suggesting that the romantic partners are two halves of the whole.
很多國(guó)家的語(yǔ)言中都有這樣的昵稱。據(jù)一款很受歡迎的網(wǎng)上語(yǔ)言學(xué)習(xí)軟件，Rosetta Stone提供的資料可知，法國(guó)人的愛稱有“Mon Petit Chou”（意為我的小包菜，或者我的小泡芙），俄國(guó)人的愛稱有“Vishenka”（櫻桃），荷蘭男孩把自己的女朋友稱作“Dropje”（糖果），巴西人說(shuō)“Meu Chuchu”,“chuchu”是一種蔬菜。在西班牙我聽說(shuō)過(guò)一個(gè)昵稱，“Media Naranja,”意為半個(gè)句子，說(shuō)明情侶是彼此的另一半。

So we decided to illustrate some of our favourites.
所以我們決定選出我們最喜歡的幾個(gè)，并配上插圖。

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1 My Little Cabbage - French
我的小包菜——法國(guó)

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2 Breadcrumb - Finnish
面包屑——芬蘭語(yǔ)

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3 My Little Bug - Hungarian
我的小臭蟲——保加利亞語(yǔ)

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4 Mousebear - German
小鼠熊——德語(yǔ)

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5 My Gold Nugget - Danish
我的小金坨——丹麥語(yǔ)

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6 Little Chip - Dutch
小薯?xiàng)l——荷蘭語(yǔ)

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7 My Little Microbe - Italian
我的小菌菌——意大利語(yǔ)

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8 Fruit Of My Heart - Indonesian
我心頭的小果果——印尼語(yǔ)

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9 My Little Round Thing - Flemish
我的小圓球——弗蘭德語(yǔ)

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10 Half An Orange - Spanish
半個(gè)小橙子——西班牙語(yǔ)

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11 Little Elephant - Thai
小象象——泰國(guó)

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12 Egg With Eyes - Japanese
有眼睛的小雞蛋——日本

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13 Cute Nose - Swedish
可愛的鼻子——瑞典

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14 My Little Chicken - Arabic
我的小雞仔——阿拉伯

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15 My Little Eyes - Greek
我的小眼睛——希臘

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Is there any science behind using pet names? Is it a mark of a healthy relationship, or unhealthy? Are couples who give each other names, ranging from the generic “Honey” and “Sweetie” to the creative “Loopy Lop,” more likely to stay together? And in our digital age, are these nicknames any more important?
這種昵稱的背后有沒(méi)有什么科學(xué)道理？這是一段戀情非常健康的標(biāo)志，抑或是非健康的標(biāo)志？那些為對(duì)方起昵稱的伴侶——無(wú)論他們的昵稱是較普通的“甜心”，“寶貝”，或者更富創(chuàng)意的“棒棒糖”——更有可能相伴終老嗎？在當(dāng)下的數(shù)字時(shí)代，這種昵稱是否尤為重要?

From what has been studied, and from the experience of several experts, it seems nicknames can be a good thing for a relationship – if both partners are into it.
從目前既有的研究成果，及若干專家的親身經(jīng)歷來(lái)看，似乎昵稱對(duì)一段戀情是頗為有益的——如果雙方都很投入其中的話。

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（翻譯：小木）