Dr. Man is one of the people in real life that I know reads this blog. (There may be others that I don't know about, but they have yet to say anything.) Therefore, he is one of the people that know what pseudonym I use for them. The other day he asked why I called him that and if I could change his name to Dr. Awesome (which I still maintain was the name of our neighbor's dog). So, with the bout of all the “name” posts recently, I decided I'd share why I call him that.
First, I thought about just calling him 'Husband.' However, I soon thought the better of it because Dr. Man is much more than just 'Husband' (although, that is one of the roles he fulfills in respect to me). Moreover, I would be highly insulted if he referred to me as 'Wife' in any context. So, that was out.
Second, I thought about calling him 'Mr. Man.' That was a code-name in high school for any guy that we (I am using the royal we; I don't have multiple personality disorder) liked. We chose that because of some song that was out about that time that referred to my man. To add a bit of respect (and to avoid confusion with The Man, whom we raged against) we added a 'Mr.' to the front.
Finally, I thought that to neglect his hard-won and newly bestowed title would be a bit rude. Hence, Dr. Man. He has pointed out that this pigeonholes him in his roles of a doctor and a man. But I think Shakespeare was spot on with the name business. I told him that this name was only that: a name. A name is just one of many labels that one carries through out life. There are terms of endearment, nicknames, familial names (mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, etc.), and many others. I like to think that I'm enough of a diversified person that my name does not define me. That is why I changed my name when we got married.
He readily acquiesced.