Bad with names?

[Jimbo]

Me, too. And being a school teacher where I have to remember a new batch of students' names every year makes my disability more shameful. "Hey, kid!" "Hi, sweetie!" Those are my fallback greetings. I used to tell myself this school year I will get all the names remembered and then after returning from the first long vacation the names are dust, blown away from my memory and I'm back to kid and sweetie.

[Quaco]

I was thinking of starting a thread like this. Recently, I've sort of decided that 80% of us are "bad with names", most of the stress of forgetting one another's names would be lessened if we realized how confused everybody else is too, and that there are only a few people who are really good with them or make a concerted effort to get them right. It's them that makes the rest of us feel funny about it.

I am forever fearing that I will run into somebody and not be able to remember their name. I even play a game with myself: when I see someone who even looks like someone else, I try to think of that other person's name, just to practice bringing their name to mind. I have no idea how well it works because I haven't kept track of how many times I've then run into that other person and how quickly I've remembered their name.

And yet, it still happens that I'll meet someone and say "Nice to meet you" and they'll say "Oh we met 15 years ago" or something! So, I think it's best to just have a good sense of humor about it all. That's the only way to deal with these occasional embarrassments.

[Arthur Crud]

I suck at remembering names, big time.

It's bad enough when I know I'm going to be meeting some folk whose names I should remember (and I've learned it's ok to ask around beforehand) but I live in dread of the surprise meeting with somebody who appears to know me very well when, to me, they may as well come from Mars.

Nothing though, beats the oft-told tale of a pal of mine who was at a restaurant having dinner with his first wife when some friends of his who recognised him came to the table and. he. forgot. his. wife's. name.

[Charlie O.]

I'm terrible. Not much good with faces, either - a bad combination!

[straw mimsy]

I'm terrible. Not much good with faces, either - a bad combination!

Me too! And that's a lot less common. I can and HAVE met someone Several times before, when I met her again, she obviously knew me-- and I had no idea who she was, but guess she might have been the person I hung out with quite a bit months before. At the time she gave me her number, and therefore I had to wait to hear what someone else called her, to be able to identify her as the same girl.

Today I had my first day as a student doctor in hospital. I took my first patient history. You always start with "Hi my name is, what is your name and date of birth"-- this guy was a LOVELY man, and I found out so much stuff about him, I was so excited to recite everything I had learned about him to the doctor, until I realised I had absolutely no idea what he had said when he told me his name. Worse, when another student told me the name, it didn't even ring any bells.

This is not going to go well for me.

[Quaco]

Maybe we're all just these extremely charismatic people who other people remember better than we will ever remember them! We should just accept it.

[The Modernist]

Used to be good, but I'm getting much worse, I think my brain is going.

[John Mc]

Today I had my first day as a student doctor in hospital. I took my first patient history. You always start with "Hi my name is, what is your name and date of birth"-- this guy was a LOVELY man, and I found out so much stuff about him, I was so excited to recite everything I had learned about him to the doctor, until I realised I had absolutely no idea what he had said when he told me his name. Worse, when another student told me the name, it didn't even ring any bells.

This is not going to go well for me.

Look on the bright side, Mimsy. At least you're not going to have any problems with patient confidentiality!

[Snarfyguy]

It's really helpful to use the person's name as soon as you're introduced. Addressing them by name a few times will help cement it in your memory. The only thing is I always forget to do it. And also it kind of makes you sounds like a salesman ("Hi Jimmy. Tell you what I'm going to do, Jimmy. Jimmy, do you like cheese?" etc.)

[Quaco]

Yes.

[sloopjohnc]

I'm really good with faces and okay with names. Worse with names as I get older.

My brother is terrible with both. When we were kids, he'd start waving to other kids he thought he knew.

I'd ask, "Who are you waving at?"

"Mike, I'm waving to Mike."

"That's not Mike."

"Yes, it is," he'd say, and shout "Hey, Mike."

It would never be Mike and he'd get the weirdest looks from people.

I guess the worse thing you could say is that he's friendly anyway.

[BARON CORNY DOG]

I'm lousy with names. My uncle, who's a pretty slick operator, carries around a notepad where he writes down names and details about people he meets. I've seen him when he's encountered someone he met two years ago and he immediately recalled something pertinent about that person's life that he asked about. T-Berry is also good with names. I've seen him take people by surprise when he refers to them by their first name. His advantage is that he's a notably big guy, so people who have met him remember him, so it's not too weird.

I'm terrible. Not much good with faces, either - a bad combination!

Me too! And that's a lot less common. I can and HAVE met someone Several times before, when I met her again, she obviously knew me-- and I had no idea who she was, but guess she might have been the person I hung out with quite a bit months before. At the time she gave me her number, and therefore I had to wait to hear what someone else called her, to be able to identify her as the same girl.

Here's a reasonably interesting episode of Charlie Rose about Agnosia. It features art-celebrity Chuck Close.