9 Guaranteed Ways to Remember Names

Indeed, there is no sweeter sound than the sound of our own name. It is often a name that makes the difference between a stranger and a friend, a prospect and a customer, a “guy who works with me” and someone, who is ready to help you whenever you need it.

Actually remembering  names could be one of the most important components of interacting with people, as it allows us to:

• Gain the admiration and trust of other people
• Get the immediate attention from people we are meeting
• Add importance to what we are saying
• Show people that they are important to us
• Make friends easier
• Become more charismatic and memorable in the eyes of others
• Do better during a job interview

Yet, so many of us have trouble recalling names 10 seconds after being introduced.

If it sounds like you, here are 9 Guaranteed Ways to remember any name in no time:

Start by making a conscious decision to remember people’s names. It is too easy to tell yourself  “I’m terrible at remembering names!” and leave it at that, rather than looking for ways to improve your memory.

I know, because this is exactly what I was doing for a long time. Until one day I ‘bragged’ about my inability to remember names to my friend and said, “Hey! I’m terrible at cooking, but it does not mean that I should stop doing it.” And she had a point. Forgetting people’s names is not necessarily a sign of “bad memory”.

It is a sign of lack of application.

From now on make a commitment to remember people’s names and use some of the tips below to learn how to do it more efficiently.

You can not memorize something if you have not paid attention to it. To begin with, listen to the person being introduced.  Half the time, people are so self absorbed with making a great first impression that they hardly ever listen to introductions or names.  I noticed that it is a lot easier for me to remember a person’s name if I let them introduce themselves first and then say something like, “Nice to meet you, Dan. My name is Arina.”

• It shows the person that I paid attention
• Pronouncing the name makes it easier for me to remember it.
• After hearing their own name, the person pays more attention to my words and is more likely to remember my name as well

The more you repeat another person’s name during conversation, the better the chances are that you will remember it. This does not mean that you have to over-do it, though. It is enough to use a person’s name as you greet them, once or twice during conversation when saying something like, “What do you think, Jen?”,” What about you, Jen?” and then once when you say your good bye’s.

This is a great way to memorize difficult and foreign names! If you are not sure you heard the name correctly or it sounds uncommon – ask a person how to spell it. Usually people are happy to do so, because they will feel that you are genuinely interested in getting to know them. While they spell it out for you, visualize big, bright, funky letters clearly in your mind. Then make sure to repeat the letters back to the person (and see the letters as you say it) until you get it right.

Our brain thinks in pictures. And it is much easier for us to recall an image, rather than a word. You can use that knowledge to your advantage by associating names with mental pictures. I notice that people do it with my name all the time, “Arina? Like Arena Football?”, “Arina? It means baking flour in Spanish!”  When I was younger my given name being linked to sports or cooking condiments did not flatter me much. Now I do it myself to help people remember my name better and it works 99% of the time! Do not be so serious. Make a game out of finding the perfect association for a name, every time you meet a new person!

You might not need this technique if you meet someone named “Lisa” or “Dan”, but it will definitely be helpful when trying to remember long, uncommon names or complex last names.  For example, when I had to study the concept of “flow” at University, described by Mihaly Csikszentmihaly, I could not bring myself to pronounce his name, not to mention memorize it. Until one day I read an interview, where Mr. Csikszentmihaly was joking about his last name being pronounced as “Chicks – sent –me – high” and I remembered it at once and for always. You can apply the same “chunking” technique to any difficult-to- pronounce names, breaking them down into short words or syllables that are easy to recall and retain in  your memory.

One of the great benefits of our age of technology is that you do not have to scrawl a person’s name or phone number on a piece of the napkin or the palm of your hand, like our parents used to do. Nowadays most people have business cards. And if they  do not, they have cell phones and emails and Facebook accounts. All you have to do is exchange emails, or phone numbers (which allows you to write another person’s name down and memorize it without any difficulties).

If you are meeting a lot of new people during a conference or at a friend’s party, after collecting business cards, make sure to write on the back a short description or a few key words that will help you to remember that person. If the person has a remarkable facial feature or a strange detail or hobby that is easy to recall (big nose, squinted eyes), use this as an anchor point to connect a name with its owner. For example, “Sarah – aquamarine cocktail dress. Does  jiu jitsu”, “Chris – red-hair guy from Seattle. Loves basketball.”

This often happens when we meet people with common last names like Howard, Scott, Daniels or foreign names like Priyanka Mallepally  or Janardhan Padiyar. When talking to a person or writing an email, make sure that you are clear about which one is the first name and which one is the last name. For example, I get about 10 emails a week, where people call me “Niki” or “Nikita”, because my last name is “Nikitina”. And while I do not mind it, I know a few people who do.

Did it bug you?

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