First names, or last...important?

[R_of_G]

I've often been amazed at being at a job for a few months and getting to tell people the names of their co-workers with whom they've worked for years.

[sumitomo]

I can be bad with remembering names,so I just start talking and things work out,sometimes they will say something that jogs the memory and I'll remember their name and other times after talking for a while I'll tell them,Man I can't remember your name,which ends in laughter.Sumi

[deeaa*]

Hehe...the only times I am in trouble with this is when I ask my boss abput how to proceed with something I'm on, and she says like 'oh ask Lisa she can fill you in' and I'm too ashamed to say who is Linda, then have to go thru our phone book or something and try to figure out who she meant. Even worse if more names are mentioned, in which case I need to write them on my pda as well so I remember them after 2 minutes still ;-)

[kiteman]

Hehe...the only times I am in trouble with this is when I ask my boss abput how to proceed with something I'm on, and she says like 'oh ask Lisa she can fill you in' and I'm too ashamed to say who is Linda, then have to go thru our phone book or something and try to figure out who she meant. Even worse if more names are mentioned, in which case I need to write them on my pda as well so I remember them after 2 minutes still ;-)

I think your memory done ran away. She said Lisa you said Linda.

[Eric***]

I think your memory done ran away. She said Lisa you said Linda.

That is too funny! The proof is in the story, huh?

[marnold***]

And plus since he's Finnish, their names were probably something like Liiimoooorniaaa with a bunch of umlauts and those little circle things.

OK, Ugly American mode: off.

[Brian Krashpad]

I've always been one to participate in the traditional USA habit of shaking hands and exchanging names when I meet someone. However, I have always had the problem of letting the name go in one ear and out the other. I can't tell you how many times I've forgotten the name two minutes after I was told. It's always been a problem for me.

Me too, I will try to remember the method you have noted, and start using it.

I once ran into a former bandmate, who had been in a band with me for about a year, and whom I knew from momentarily being in a previous band with, about 5 or 6 months after he'd left my band. Momentarily could not come up with his name at a rather large drunken party, and man was he pissed.

Oddly, I've found that friending people on Facebook helps, since I then typically see their face next to their name.

[deeaa*]

That is too funny! The proof is in the story, huh?

Damn, I didn't realize at all!

[deeaa*]

Me too, I will try to remember the method you have noted, and start using it.

I once ran into a former bandmate, who had been in a band with me for about a year, and whom I knew from momentarily being in a previous band with, about 5 or 6 months after he'd left my band. Momentarily could not come up with his name at a rather large drunken party, and man was he pissed.

Oddly, I've found that friending people on Facebook helps, since I then typically see their face next to their name.

I can top that; I was at this party and this guy comes to talk to me and he's like vaguely familiar looking, and we talk a long time & then I leave, and the next day another friend calls and we talk and he says 'so you met Pete(I don't remember the real name) again last night, wasn't it great he visited here' and I'm like, yeah, so that was his name, huh, so was he anyway? And he goes silent and says: 'dude, don't you remember? He was our bassist for nigh two years! (meaning me too; our band's bassist) ' And I really had clean forgotten him. But then it sort of came back when I connected the dots.

[deeaa*]

And plus since he's Finnish, their names were probably something like Liiimoooorniaaa with a bunch of umlauts and those little circle things.

OK, Ugly American mode: off.

LOL :-) well actually those are pretty rare in first names, can't really think of any that had any strange letters. Last names, yeah.

First names are usually short and kinda sharp, often with dual consonants; Merja, Marja, Eero, Maria, Petri, Erkki, Pertti, Jarkko etc...

It's the last names look alien to others; Jääskeläinen, Pääkkönen, Ålander, Kääriäinen, etc.

[LeadedEL84]

Me too, I will try to remember the method you have noted, and start using it.

I once ran into a former bandmate, who had been in a band with me for about a year, and whom I knew from momentarily being in a previous band with, about 5 or 6 months after he'd left my band. Momentarily could not come up with his name at a rather large drunken party, and man was he pissed.

Oddly, I've found that friending people on Facebook helps, since I then typically see their face next to their name.

The facebook solution is brilliant. I have a facebook page but have never done anything with it. I just opened it so I could use certain features that are connected to it. I built a myspace page along time ago too. I haven't updated it in like 2 years though. I never really got into that kind of thing. I just started the page because there was this gorgeous girl at work I was friends with who talked me into it. Then she got married so I lost interest in my page. LOL
Funny though I rarely forget the name of an attractive woman. Maybe that is what clogs my memory for everything else?


I've really enjoyed reading this thread. It's been intelligent, informative, and funny. It's always nice to be reassured I'm not the only one with bad habits or brain malfunctions. It seems I'm in good company with this particular affliction. Dee takes the cake though. He has topped us all by forgetting a name within the span of writing a sentence. I'm thinking we should take up a collection and send him a healthy supply of Ginko Baloba and a copy of "Improve your Memory Power". We need to help our guitar slinging,Finnish, brother out!

[Bloozcat]

Many years ago when I was in Arizona I joined an outdoors club that was loosely sponsored through Arizona State University. You didn't have to be a student (which I wasn't), so I joined.

On the first trip as a group 15 of us went to Payson for a weekend stay at a cabin to do some hiking. It was 15 degrees when we arrived at the cabin the first evening. As most people in the new club were unaquainted, someone suggested a game to help everyone remember each other's names. We each took turns in front of the group as the rest said their names. Then the one in front of the group turned around and the others "re-arranged" themselves in a different order. When the one in front turned around he had to call each person by their correct name. Not wanting to appear a fool, you really concentrated on the names when you heard them. I was first and got them all right the first time. When each had finished with his/her turn, we all knew each others names and didn't forget them...and most remembered the names the first go around.

[sumitomo]

That's pretty good Bloozcat,I would have only been able to remember seven,Sneezy,Sleepy,Dopey,Doc,Happy,Bashful and Grumpy.LOL!! Sumi

[Rotor]

It's odd what sticks and what doesn't. I remember my cousins 8th grade teachers name, but the name of someone I just met is gone in like 3 seconds. It really bothers me that I have that problem with names as I was raised that you should remember things like that. To add to the confusion I belong to a 4X4 offroading forum where we actually get together and do runs. Now I have to remember a screen name, and their real name, and connect the two. What a nightmare for me...
On the upside I can sing along to almost every Beatles song ever done, and a huge number of other bands. (Not that you'd want to hear me butcher Yellow Submarine.) I didn't even realize it till I saw a Beatles tribute band last year. I was never a huge fan at the time, but somehow they all worked their way into my subconsciousness.
When I come up against the wall I am humble and admit what a dummy I am and most times the response is, " That's Okay, I can't remember yours either." Then we have a laugh and reintroduce ourselves to each other in the hopes that it might stick. Add beer to the equation, and you can pretty much hang it up.