hypocorism.

[hahy-pok-uh-riz-uhm, hi-]–noun

1. a pet name.
2. the practice of using a pet name.
3. the use of forms of speech imitative of baby talk, esp. by an adult.

I had a very appropriate pet name my freshman year of high school.  Simply “my pet.”  Though there was nothing ‘simple’ about the name giver.  I often heard his name mentioned in the halls between class.  Tom Porter this, Tom Porter that.  Curly dark hair and eyes as blue as my favorite colored pencil.  Brightly hip Hawaiian shirts everyday.  A senior on the baseball team. I was Tom Porter’s pet.

Did he mean anything by it?  Neh.  Did I still daydream that he might secretly love me?  Highly possible.  For one short year, with my orange and blue braces and my jammin adidas slides, I reached greatness because of a simple, short, perfect hypocorism.