Memorizing Names: 5 Proven Techniques

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Do you also have a bad memory for names? In this case, these 5 techniques will be useful to you, with the help of which you get rid of your forgetfulness once and for all.

Probably, many of us are familiar with the unpleasant situation when we meet a familiar person, but we cannot remember his name. Or, even worse, we get to know someone and after 5 minutes we have no idea how to contact him. This can happen anywhere - at a friend's party, at a business lunch or in a new work team.

How do you learn to memorize names? There are several proven ways to do this.

According to an article in the journal Psychology Today, the ability to remember names also deteriorates with age. It turns out that about 85% of middle-aged and elderly people forget their names. However, this does not mean at all that forgetfulness of names appears only with age, because many young people also notice such a flaw in themselves.

Why do we forget names

This phenomenon can be explained. When we meet someone for the first time, our attention is scattered into many factors - the person's face, the person's appearance, his voice, the manner of speaking, gestures and surroundings. An overabundance of information and a defocusing of our attention often lead to the fact that we cannot remember the name of the person in front of us.

Remembering the name is important

If you want to get someone's attention, the easiest way to do this is by calling them by name. Research shows that pronouncing our name activates our brain, even when we are in a noisy room. This is why many influential leaders place great importance on names and try to make the most of them. The effect of this is easy to test: I suppose everyone is pleased to know that they remember him when he hears his name. Conversely, the forgetfulness of others causes negative emotions.

How to memorize names

If you, like many people, are constantly forgetting names, Christy Hedges, professional coach, speaker and author of The Power of Presence: Unlock Your Potential to Influence and Engage Others, offers some tried and tested tips to help you get rid of this shortcoming once and for all.

Met - repeat

When you hear someone's name, don't just nod back and continue the conversation, but repeat that name by including it in your conversation or asking a new acquaintance about something. For example, if your new friend's name is Mark, you can say, "Hi Mark, nice to meet you," or ask him the question, "How long have you been in IT, Mark?"

Use the name throughout the conversation, just don't overdo it or repeat it too often. Also include the name in the farewell phrase and, while pronouncing it, look into the face of the interlocutor in order to fix his image and name together in memory.

Write down

Dr. Gary Small, a psychiatrist and memory expert, suggests asking the person to write down their name, especially if it's unusual or rare. This technique will be effective if you have a well-developed visual memory. Alternatively, you can ask the person for a business card and read their name on it while you chat with them. This will create a connection between the person and the visualization of their name in your memory.

And immediately after the meeting, write down the person's name and basic information about him in your contacts. So you will save all the most important things and, on occasion, easily remember the interlocutor. You can write down both personal information and features of his appearance or the topic of the last conversation.

Use associations

Many experts advise, at the moment when you hear a new name, to create in your imagination a verbal connection or a picture for association. It can be any fact that you know about a person - his hobbies, field of activity, place of residence, etc.

Vivian Zhang gives an example of this advice she learned from Dale Carnegie's training course:

Imagine pictures that sound like a person's name and compare them with other facts you know about them. If you meet someone from Brazil named Laura, imagine her wearing a laurel wreath on her head, floating in the Amazon River.

Create connections

Another way to memorize names is to associate a person with another person with the same name, whom you know well. For example, with your friend or relative.

Christy Hedge learned this technique at one of the trainings in which 15 people took part. She was surprised when the trainer, after a short greeting with each of the participants, walked through the group again and addressed each of them by name without a single mistake. He then used a simple technique - he associated each person with a famous person (or a person known to him). For example, Ryan was associated with Ryan Gosling. It may seem daunting at first, but with practice you will learn to instantly create such connections between people and memorize their names.

Show Attention

Most psychologists and memory experts argue that one of the main reasons for forgetting names is that we do not focus on it and after a moment our attention is scattered to other things that we are surrounded by.

The same advice is given in the first place by one of the most sociable people on the planet, Keith Ferrazzi:

If you make a conscious decision to remember a name because you are attentive to the people you meet, you will immediately begin to do so much better.