Hacks

Use These 6 Tricks to Remember a New Friend’s Name Easier

Peggy

2016-10-04 , 5:56 am

Last Updated on 2023-05-10 , 12:59 pm

Don’t you find it frustrating and annoying when you can’t remember that someone’s name?

This is bound to happen when you meet a lot of people—especially at a party or even at your school or office.

For those who claim at your have STM, or is simply developing a poor memory due to aging, here’s your “cure”.

Hear It Repeatedly

Don’t be shy to pronounce or listen to it repeatedly.

The more times you familiarize yourself with the name, the more chances you’re going to remember. If your friend or co-worker has surprising and exotic names such as “Arantxa,” or “Zoewien,” it’s time to make use of this trick.

You can always double check the name with your friend by asking these questions: “Am I pronouncing it correctly?” or “How do you pronounce that?” and then repeating the name again and again.

But once you’ve said it a hundred times during a conversation, it becomes hard not to remember it.

Spelling It Out

Spend more time understanding how it is spelt. Get your friend to spell it out if required. You’ll stand a higher chance at remembering the names when you get it all spelt out instead of just hearing it briefly for the first time and moving on.

You tend to quickly forget about every name you’ve heard if there’s a long list and the last name is what you only remember.

Writing It Down

Come on, this is fool proof. Quickly jot down the names before the conversation ends. Technology has made it so easy and convenient to do so, you don’t even need a paper and pen.

Note down somebody’s name if you didn’t have a chance to get his or her name card – you wouldn’t know when knowing somebody’s name can come in handy. Even a café or retail store’s regular would love it when you remember their name.

Keep a Name Record

If you’re really too bad at names, you’ll want to do this. Create a notebook or even an online word excel, to keep track of your new clients or customers.

Associate their name with their traits or significant features. For instance: Donavan, friend of Joash, a chef, friendly.

Associate them with people or things you know

But first of all, you’ll have to understand them. Get to know them a little better, and try to associate them with people or things that you know. Better still, create rhymes for their names.

For example, you just met Terry. You associate Terry with strawberries, and believe that Terry likes to eat strawberries (doesn’t matter whether that’s true).

That way, he can be Terry-Berry. It can be tough, but once you’ve established that connection, it’ll be almost impossible to forget.

Choose to Care

If you’re not sincerely focused on learning someone’s name, you will obviously forget all about it when you do the next thing. There’s too much stuff vying for our attention, and we have tons of things to remember apart from some new random person’s name.

If you’re telling yourself to remember someone’s name, and sincerely caring at all, you will get better at remembering that somebody’s name. Making a little effort (like using these tips and choosing to care) makes a lot of difference.

Now, if you’d have realised, all the tricks involve something similar: repeating the name in one way or another. So if you really care about someone, just remember: repeat, repeat and repeat.

Featured Image: Odua Images / Shutterstock.com