Nicknames?

I've never been big on nicknames. I'm not exactly sure why though. I figure if a parent wanted their child to be called Joe, they should have just named him Joe instead of Joseph. Kind of strange of me, I know. I'm a little odd that way. The only thing that I call Patrick, besides his name, is "sweetpea". I'm just a little curious now, did/do you call your children anything besides their name or a name based nickname?