Remembering Names

Admit it, you suck at remembering peoples names. When you first meet someone you don't store that name info unless you think you might actually need it at some point. Then you still don't store it because you got distracted by the chips, a shiny thing, etc. You hear the name then almost instantly something wipes it from your mind.

People will admit that this happens, but never to the person who's name they forgot. They play games instead. They wait for someone else to say the name. They ask how the name is spelled (usually results in you looking like a dumbass). They don't want to seem like a jerk. (Not that I know a person who actually gets mad when you ask.)

While it's innocent to forget the name of someone you don't know very well, it's pretty bad when it's someone you've met many times. There comes a point that if you don't already know their names it's a problem. You can't ask without seeming like (and being) a total jerk.

My dad is notoriously bad with names. He, however, at least has the excuse of hearing issues. From a few years he just refered to one of my friends as, "That Campbell Kid." Finally my sister dated his older brother and my dad actually remembered their names. On a trip to Wyoming with friends, my dad kept botching the name of one of my friends (see Hearing Aid Please). This still isn't as bad as some of the name forgetting I've participated in.

Back in sixth grade, I hung out with one of my friends and he had a friend that hang out with us as well. I don't think that we were introduced when I met him and I didn't ask his name. This proved problematic later on. A couple months in, I discovered that I didn't know his name. At that point I couldn't ask what it was. So, I did the listening and hope someone says it thing. Someone would say it and I'd make a note to remember it, but was thwarted by my lack of an attention span. I could never remember it. I hung out with him for an entire school year and managed to not know or use his name. (I want to say it was JT or maybe TJ or was it Theodore?)

There's another incident that occurred back in eighth grade where I couldn't remember someone's name, but I wasn't alone in this. My two best guy friends participated as well. In fact one of them actually dated this girl. We couldn't remember her name at all. (Actually, I don't think the one who dated her knew her name while dating her.) I remember her face and that she had red hair, but not her name. Since we couldn't remember her name we reffered to her as, "Whatserface." (We didn't actually say this to her face.) It was pretty bad, but then she moved so we didn't have to worry about it. Then she came back and one of my friends (not the one that dated her) asked her her name. We then proptly forgot it. (Was it Taylor? I think it started with a T. Maybe I just think of T's when I don't remember a person's name.)

My friend, the one who didn't date Whatserface, came up with a system to remember one girls name. It went like this, "Morgotha, Duck, Mallard, Mallory!" He would say that everytime he saw this girl that our friend, the one who dated Whatserface, liked.

It's not inhuman to forget a persons name, but try to learn it before the first few meetings are up. Otherwise, you'll end up dating someone who's name you don't know and being unable to ask for it. Basically, just don't do any of the stupid things me and my friends did in middle school.