Today’s Question: How do you remember HARD names?
The basic technique for remembering names is to create an image or association for their name and attach that image/association to the person. Create a simple, memorable story.
Examples:
Olivia makes me think of an olive.
Olivia has black hair.
I imagine her black hair is made out of olives.
Stephanie is also my neighbor’s name.
Stephanie has a really beautiful smile.
I imagine Stephanie visits my neighbor with a big smile 🙂
But what if you can’t think of an image or association??
Here’s what I do:
I meet a girl named Gabriella.
Her name doesn’t make me think of any image or association…and I don’t know any other Gabriellas.
First, I repeat her name back to her.
“Gabriella, where are you from?”
I repeat her name a few more times in my head.
THEN
I use the first sound of her name “G” and think of an image that starts with the same sound. Could be “gum” or “gas” or “grab”. Doesn’t really matter.
Then I associate that image to her.
I imagine Gabriella is chewing gum and then she sticks it in her curly hair.
I think to myself, “I know she has a longer, harder name so this will help me remember what it starts with.”
95 times out of 100 I will easily remember their name later on, because
a) I repeated her name a few times
b) I made a simple image/association to remember the first sound of her name. This will trigger the memory of her name.
One more thing you can do is visualize how her name is spelled. Almost as if you imagine reading it on a name tag. Do this when you repeat her name to yourself. This helps me a lot.
Good luck and always try to remember people’s names!
Everyone loves hearing the sound of their own name and everyone loves it when you remember them.
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