Don' t call me Buddy...

Alex has been attending a soccer skills thing for 3-5 year olds, and he really enjoys it. The "coach" has patience of steel and is able to control and focus the 10 or so kids who participate (although the free-willingness of that participation is somewhat questionable, when the same howling child is pushed onto the playing field with threats of going straight home if they don't cut it out, which only ensures more determinated crying will follow).
The coach actually knows everyones name, but has a habit of calling all the kids "buddy" when talking to them individually. "How's it going buddy?" Great score buddy", "See you later buddy". At the end of the session the other week, the coach gathered all the kids around to tell them what a "great job" they had all done and to give them a final high-five before they left. We noticed that Alex lagged behind and had a brief chat to the coach.. I heard the coach say "you did well today buddy", but I could not hear what followed; only the coach stood up with a rather perplexed look on his face before saying, "Ok, see you next week". When Alex ran over to us afterward, we asked him, "what did you say to your coach". His reply? "My name is Alex".