Voice commands for contacts with unusual names

Device: Samsung Galaxy Note 3. My partner's name is not "anglo" and I have not worked out a way to pronounce it and have it understood. Are there work-arounds for this? 1. Can I get the phone to pronounce the name so that I can try to use the same tortured pronunciation? 2. Is there a way to set a simpler "nick name" for a contact that can be better understood? 3. On my device, can Google Now do the same thing instead of S-Voice I.e. "Call partner_name/nickname" and would it be any better?