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The Straw Hat Pirates in One Piece are known for their unique personality traits that make them appealing to the fandom. There is Luffy with his daft but strong personality, Zoro with an aloof but loyal one, and every other Straw Hat Pirate with a distinctive demeanor.
Out of them all, there is one Straw Hat pirate who is famous for favoring women, Vinsmoke Sanji. He has a very rake personality, but deep inside, he knows how to respect women. He has displayed a particular behavior since the start of the series where he calls Nami (the navigator of the Straw Hats) 'Nami-san' and Nico Robin (archeologist of the Straw Hats) ' Robin-chan.'
Fans haven't paid much attention to these honorifics Sanji adds while addressing these ladies, but they have a deep meaning that Eiichiro Oda explained in an SBS section of One Piece.
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One Piece: The meaning behind the honorifics Sanji adds for Nami and Robin
The honorific 'san' is used to refer to an older woman, whereas 'chan' refers to a younger woman. According to the SBS of volume 80 of One Piece, Sanji uses these oppositely (calling Robin 'chan' and Nami 'san' despite Robin being the older one) because he understands the feelings of women who want to be treated differently than their age.
Nami, being the younger one of the girls, wouldn't want to be treated as a child, so Sanji addresses Nami as a grown-up lady (Nami-san). On the other hand, Nico Robin, being the older one, wouldn't want to be treated as an old lady, so Sanji addresses her as a young girl (Robin-chan).
When asked this question in the SBS section of One Piece, Oda didn't have an answer to it at first but was later reminded of the time when a female staff member of One Piece mentioned how older women wish to be treated as young while young girls wish to be treated as grown-ups. Oda agreed to this notion and said this is the reason for Sanji's way of addressing the female members of his crew.
How Nami and Robin address Sanji
In One Piece anime, Robin addresses her crewmates by their occupation before the Enies Lobby ('cook-san' for Sanji). After this, she started calling them by their first names, but she still sometimes addresses them by their occupation, just like before.
Nami addresses Sanji as 'Sanji-kun.' The honorific 'kun' is used to address someone with respect. Some fans believe Nami calls Sanji this way because she likes how he respects women, so she does the same with Sanji.
Some other fans have speculated on another reason that has to do with Japanese wordplay. 'Sanji' in Japanese can be written as '3時,' which translates to 3 o'clock.
As Nami is a navigator, she has to address the ship's pilot in the direction their ship has to go. So, she uses timestamps to refer to the direction the ship has to go, which is also pretty common in real life. So, according to some fans, Nami refers to Sanji as 'kun' so as not to confuse his name with the timestamp of 3 o'clock.
Honorifics are paid close attention to in Japanese culture. These suffixes also play a pivotal role in One Piece as, according to fans, Oda sometimes leaves foreshadowing hints in how characters are addressed in the series.
