Discover Simple Ways to Remember Names

Remembering names can be hard, especially at a conference, meeting or any upcoming holiday events where you’re meeting many people at once. Here are some steps for helping to make the process easier:

1. When you meet someone look him or her in the eye and keep your eye contact while you are talking. In fact, remember their eye color and almost imagine that you are glued to that person like a piece of taffy.
2. When they mention their name, repeat it out loud, "Hi, Tom, it's great to meet you." What you’re doing is making them feel good by using their name and it’s also going into your memory bank through repetition. It also forces you to really listen which of course is the main ingredient for remembering names. Focus and listen. Just mention their name once or twice—not more during the conversation. Shake their hand as you mention their name. We do this at the beginning of the conversation and to really 'seal' it, shake their hand when you depart and again mention their name. Just like a presentation, most people listen to the beginning and end. In this case, you are also building in a way of remembering them and they of you.
3. Form some type of association about them. Maybe they have the same name as a friend, or their name rhymes with something. We often remember things in pictures and this will help our mind paint a word picture.
4. Erase this phrase from your mind: "I'm no good at remembering names." Replace it with: "I'm getting better at remembering names." What the mind hears internally, it remembers.
5. Ask the person how they spell their name. Before you laugh and say what if their name is John or Scott, remember my friends "Jon" and "Scott" and look at the spelling. I have found that almost any name has several ways of spelling and I also make sure it goes into my memory bank when I ask them the correct spelling. As Dale Carnegie said, "The sweetest sound to anyone is the sound of their own name."