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Characters from children's television programmes are the favourite pet names used between lovers, researchers have found.

This year, 51¹ú²úÊÓƵr and Marge from the The Simpsons, Cartman from South Park and Buffy the Vampire Slayer have taken over from Mr Blobby, Squirrel Nutkin and Sonic the Hedgehog.

Julie Coleman, English language lecturer at Leicester 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ, has scoured thousands of newspaper personal columns. Her findings are contained in her book Love, Sex and Marriage: A Historical Thesaurus .

A website selling personalised cards has been inundated with requests for current television characters' names to be used on Valentine's day greetings.

"It was only a matter of time before Tinky Winky and La La made it," Dr Coleman said.