That’s not my name!

From a very young age, we meet a large number of new people. It starts as early as pre-school, when small children get enrolled and suddenly have to remember names, including all their new-found friends or enemies’ names…

As the years tick over, it’s primary school, high school, university and eventually the workplace. The reality is that many people arrive to start their working careers and still do not have a process for remembering the names of people they meet.

Have you ever wondered why you can remember the names of your friends from primary school but cannot remember the name of the person you were introduced to five minutes ago? The reason for this is that your brain is a large network of connections. The more times you repeat a certain name or play with a certain friend, the better and longer you will remember that name.

In both personal and professional contexts, it is crucial to recognize the significance of a person’s name. While it may seem like just another name to you, it holds deep meaning for the individual you are meeting for the first time. By showing that you remember and respect their name, you can positively influence that person’s perception of you and potentially secure important business deals.

Seeing that we have now established the importance of remembering a person’s name, this article will strive to give you some basic techniques for remembering the names of people you meet.

When you meet a person for the first time, and they tell you their name or introduce you to somebody who pronounces the name of the person you are meeting, ensure you first focus on the name itself. Look the person directly in the eyes and clear your mind of anything other than the person you are meeting and their name.

Once you hear their name and see them in front of you, the easiest way to remember it is to connect it to another person with the same name you have known for years. For example, if the name of the new person you meet is John and you have known John for years, connect that person to John. If you can find any resemblance to John, even if it’s only the colour of their hair, try to focus on that and make the connection. After you have made the connection, try to repeat the connection in your head a few times and focus on the resemblance that makes you think about the other John you have known for a long time.

It could, however, happen that you are in a situation where you meet someone and do not know anybody with the same name. This often happens when you are in a new country where the common names you are used to are not used regularly. You would thus have to find a new way of remembering the name of the person you have just met. A good technique to use during these encounters would be to connect the name of the person you have just met to something that makes you think of the name. For instance, if you meet a person named Donald, you might think about Donald Duck. Pictures and photos are a lot easier to remember than words or names. Every time you see this person, think about the picture of Donald Duck and find a resemblance to Donald Duck somewhere on that person. Perhaps you imagine Donald Duck sitting on his head, or when you look at his face, you see something similar to Donald Duck. It could be anything when choosing something to connect this person to what reminds you of them. The more colourful and weird, the better your chances of remembering it. Another thing to remember is that this technique helps YOU remember – please don’t go and tell Donald that you imagine Donald Duck on his head every time you see him! This might not end well for you even though you remember his name…

Now that you have a technique to remember the name of the person you have just met, it’s important to strengthen the connection. If you only do the exercise once, the chances of remembering the person’s name for a long time would be small. It would help if you used repetition to strengthen the connection in your brain. The best way to do this is to use the name, and every time you see the person, greet him or her using that person’s name. Remember your connection to the person in your mind and repeat it every time you see the person. Even if you have just met the person, try to repeat his name a few times during the first encounter. This will strengthen the connection and help you remember his or her name for years.

You might also be in a meeting or lecture where you have many names to remember and cannot make your connections quickly enough. In this case, a good way to do it is to write down the names of all the people you meet in the order they are introduced to you. If they give you their business cards, you can also arrange them on the table when you meet them. Once you have gathered and recorded all the names, you can then take your time to follow the same process discussed above to form your connections.

Like everything in life, you might not perfect the techniques the first time, but you should get the hang of it after a few attempts. The best way to improve yourself in remembering names is to practice the techniques until you have a winning formula that works for you.

Now that you have a few tools to remember names, you can comfortably enter the industry and meet new people. You will also start to see how your new-found skill will impact securing and building long-term relationships.