Spud, love, chicken: Irish chocolatier reveals the nation’s leading nicknames

What’s in a nickname? A loved one by any other name would still smell as sweet.

I believe it was one Mr William Shakespeare that said that in a little-known play called Romeo and Juliet. Or, at least, something to that effect.

Now, centuries later, the folks at Lily O’Brien’s are scoping out what exactly goes into the nicknames we are affectionately assigned by those closest to us in life. Surveying the nation to gather the top nicknames in Ireland, the statistics speak for themselves.

Unsurprisingly, 60% of those surveyed have had a nickname at one point or another in their lives. These can range from some variation of your surname to the more convoluted monikers that no one really understands but everyone thoroughly enjoys. On top of that, the Lily O’Brien’s survey found that 87% of those with a nickname actually like them!

Now, let’s dig a little deeper into those findings.

The results showed that 47% of respondents call their nearest and dearest by a nickname. The top contenders? There’s 24% of people calling their loved one—you guessed it—‘love’, while 20% opt for ‘hun’ and 18% affectionately call their other half ‘darling’.

Over half of those who have a nickname say it’s a variation of their name, and over a third (34%) have more than one nickname. Show-offs. Nearly a fifth of those who completed the survey (19%) have a ‘chicken’ in their lives, followed by 17% of Irish people knowing a ‘spud’, and 14% being familiar with a ‘Big Man’.

People who took part in the survey were also invited to share their nicknames and how they got them, and they’re pretty amusing.

“My nickname is ‘Grill’,” one respondent said. “The first time I went to my now-husband’s house, I set his grill on fire while trying to cook garlic bread. He called me his Grillfiend after that, and not his girlfriend.”

“My name is Dawn, but I hate early mornings and stay up late, so my friends call me Dusky!” another said, but this next one really takes the cake. “I thought a watch battery was a chocolate smarty and ate it. Mistakenly told my friends, who named me Energiser from then on.” Incredible.

What’s your nickname?

Alongside discovering the most common nicknames for you or your loved one, Lily O’Brien’s has also created a nickname generator, inspired by the delicious recipes in the Desserts Collection. To test it out and generate your nickname, all you have to do is find the name for your birth month, then the name for the first letter of your name, put the two together and that’s the nickname!

Are you a Zesty Boo, a Scrumptious Sweet Pea, or the elusive Spicy Pumpkin?

Lily O’Brien’s decadently indulgent chocolates can help you create special moments all year round. All the collections are available in stores nationwide and online at www.lilyobriens.ie