Calling Nathan "Nathan"

I realized as I was writing my last blog that I have a habit of referring to my husband as “Nathan” when I am talking about him to other people. This habit of mine is a little bit strange. In my conversations with Nathan, I call him by one of my myriad of (admittedly dorky) nicknames, such as Neighbor, Bear, Little Bear, Bearbala (bear-bah-la), etc. To the outside world, Nathan is known as “Nate”. This is what his friends call him, how he introduces himself to people, the name he signs on papers, and so forth. To the outside world, he presents himself and is known as Nate.

Yet, despite this, I still usually call him Nathan when talking to other people or when writing about him. Kinda weird, huh?

The only explanation I have for this is that it's a “wife phenomenon”. I’ve noticed a few wives who have this same habit. For instance, Nathan and I had friends in school for whom this was also the case. Cathy always called her husband David, but to the rest of the world he was Dave – it was what he called himself and what we called him! So all I can conclude about my use of “Nathan” is that it must be a disease that afflicts wives…