Ruth Sadelle Alderson

I also didn't grow up in an endearment-using household, aside from my mom's usage of "Molly, honey!", which lead to my sister calling me "Honey" for years. There wasn't any "sweetie, time for dinner!" sort of stuff at my house.

I work in a department with mostly men, and I really think in a mostly-male environment, nicknames function as endearments. We all have about eight nicknames per person (hey, it's like hockey!), but while the women in my office will use endearments towards each other (our bus driver calls everyone "kiddo" and "babe"), the guys don't. There will be a lot of cross-gender "Hi, honey!" "Hey, baby!" type of stuff, but it's always said in a goofy tone, like we're in no way using it as a romantic endearment.