Four Tips To Remembering Names

How does it make you feel when someone you’ve just met remembers your name? In general it’s safe to say most people feel valued, worthy, and memorable when someone remembers their name – and this makes the ensuing conversation, personal or business, even better.

For some people remembering names is really easy; for others, not so much. If you fall into the latter category try one of these four tips:

Repeat

• As soon as you’ve been introduced or have introduced yourself, repeat the other person or persons names two or three times in your initial conversation: “Tom, how do you know Sara?” “How was your flight out here, Drew?”
• If the person has an unusual name, politely ask her to repeat, and then repeat it back to her. Make sure to repeat her name once or twice more as you continue the conversation.
• When you’re ending the conversation, repeat the other person’s name in closing with a personalization: “It was so nice to meet you, Lindsey and Scott; I look forward to seeing you at the next speaker’s series.”

Link

• Suppose you just met Jon and you happen to know several Jon’s. Add a link to the Jon’s you already know. There’s Jon your nephew, Jon your co-worker, Jon your neighbor, Jon your son’s friend, and now Jon the gallery owner.

Alliterate/Find An Acronym

• Find something notable about the person and use alliteration to remember: Robin with the remarkable red hair.
• For a group of people you just met, spell an acronym to yourself. VAN: Vanessa, Alan, Nora.

Visualize/Associate

• If imagery works for you, try random visual associations: the name Gary starts with G, which reminds you of green, which is the color of tree leaves and dollar bills and he wore a green tie the first time you met him at the conference. Green Gary from the conference.
• You just met Rich Carver. Carver reminds you of carving wood and you love deep rich colors. Rich Carver.

People remember when you remember their name – and there’s high value in that.