How to Memorize Names

Remembering names can be difficult. We meet dozens of new people every day, and every single one has a different name. And you don’t know which faces will be important down the road. so, how to remember names ? Fortunately there are tricks you can use to associate a label to a face. Some date all the way back to the ancient Greeks.

Rhyme Like you Mean it

The easiest way to remember a face is with a wacky rhyme. Find something that distinguishes the person whose name you are trying to remember, the more outlandish the better. Say, for example, the person is named George and is quite muscular. I would call him George the Forge whenever I think of him, because I think of forges and forged metal when thinking of strength. Or say you meet a woman named Mary who happens to insinuate threats. “Scary” Mary, or “Merciless” Mary are good names for her. What if you meet another Mary, though? Describe her to yourself. Does she have thin hair that doesn’t seem to stick to her head? Mary Frizz-a-lot is what immediately comes to my mind. Again, it doesn’t need to make sense to anyone but yourself, so as long as you can remember the name it is a good one.

But if it’s rude, you should probably keep it to yourself.

Break Down the Name

If a name is more than one syllable, then the roots often have another meaning. Johnson, for example, is made up of John and Son. You might interpret that as John’s Son, and create a mental image to support that, maybe the person as a baby. Michael sounds like Mike and ale, so imagine him drinking a pint of ale in front of a microphone.

This trick is based on a memory trick known as pegging. The idea is that you can associate two unrelated items together with a wacky image. Say you need to remember a grocery list of Lettuce, carrots and steaks. You would start by relating lettuce and carrots together, possibly with a cow munching on them. Or it could be a lettuce salad bowl being impaled with a carrot, then a cow smoking a carrot. The idea is that, once you have two objects linked together, you can link the second to another object, in this case the steak. Of course, with the name, you are just associating the parts of the name with the face.

Repeat Their Name Often

The first time you meet them, make sure you use their name in the conversation. This helps cement the connection between the face and the name. There are other benefits, too. People feel that conversations where the other person uses their name frequently are more personal, with a connection between people. Clearly, this is great for dating , but it is also an asset in business. Just be careful. Overusing someone’s name will have the opposite effect on the person. It won’t matter if you remember their name if they don’t want to talk to you.