Remember Someone’s Name By Thinking Of Your Friends

Remember Someone’s Name By Thinking Of Your Friends

I’m bad at names. So are you. Everyone’s bad at names. You’ve read a million tips for remembering people’s names, and none of them have worked. But maybe this one will! It’s one of the simplest, least gimmicky tricks I’ve heard, and I’ve used it before without really thinking about it.

Redditor analogHedgehog says:

Instead of trying to remember a person’s name, I’ll just mentally associate them to a person I know who has the same first name. So, if I meet a guy named Daniel, I’ll just try and remember my old lab partner Daniel.

This seems to stick out more in my mind because I can relate the person I just met to complex memories instead of just a single word that I’ll inevitably forget.

You think of a friend with the same name, and you picture these two people together. It’s so simple that it’s barely a hack—which is true of some of the greatest hacks. And as the redditor says, you have tons of associations with the people you know, as opposed to a rhyming mnemonic or even a celebrity’s name.

One caveat, as analogHedgehog admits: “The only names I have trouble with now are those that I haven’t heard before.” You might have to fall back on a celebrity, or a soundalike. Or you’ll have to get their last name and imagine they’re related to your friend.


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