According to the website College Info Geek, there are four easy tactics to remembering names:
- Realize Names Aren’t Easy to Remember — Recognize that names are difficult to remember, and you’ll naturally put more effort into remembering them.
- Use the Person’s Name in Conversation — When you repeat someone’s name, you’re engaging the parts of your brain required to speak it, resulting in new neural pathways, which improves your recall. Use the person’s name more than once in the conversation to make this technique more effective.
- Use a Mnemonic Device — link the person’s name to something else that is easily retrievable. A mnemonic can be anything from an acronym to a rhyme to a ridiculous story. For example, if you met someone named “Avery,” you could think of a word that rhymes with their name, bravery, and remember them as brave for their choice of drink or showing up to the party alone, etc.
- Admit Defeat — if you forget someone’s name, admit it, and ask again. People will understand.