If you know please respond

it depends on the friend group, me and my friends use to call each other that and we meant b*tch, but alot of girls would ask us why we calling each other babe and we told them it's b*tch for us and they said yea that's also one of the meanings so I think it depends, but if you're not comfortable calling them that just tell them you really want to know what it means as you've been left in the dark for a while, I'm sure they'll understand if their your friends