I'm going to start introducing the PH as "Bob" and see if he notices...

I got together with some college friends this week and one of the things we talked about was a mutual friend who recently got engaged. We all remembered a conversation that took place right after she met the man who would, years later, become her fiance. They had been out a few times and things were going well, and she loved everything about him... except his name. In fact, she HATED his name. And was trying to come up with something else to call him (as in, his name was "Rod," but she was going to suddenly start calling him "Derek"-- how awesome is that?!?) She never did try to change his name but, from what I've heard, she's still not a fan of it.

The topic came up because one of my college friends who visited this week is facing a similar situation. She loves the guy she's dating, loves spending time with him... not so in love with his name. And she was considering telling him to change it (I encouraged that approach just because I figured his reaction would make for an entertaining story...) I think her final solution is to come up with a pet name for him so she never has to use his real one (She told him, "You'll be 'Babe' soon enough.")

I don't hate the Pretend Husband's name by any means (especially because it's so similar to mine-- as I've said, we have a Pat & Patricia-type thing going on), but I rarely use it. Instead, we are "hon" (as in "honey") to each other. In fact, an easy way to tell I've annoyed the PH is when he calls me by my name. I'm not sure if we tried out different names for each other, but "hon" is what stuck. Oh, and I've started calling him "Mr. Tickles" because it's random and makes him wonder what he did to earn it. Got to keep those guys-- whatever you call them-- on their toes.