I'm pretty lousy
I listen, but only after I remind myself to really listen this time, by which point they've already finished telling me their name.
this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2026
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6 or 7 times a say in varying contexts I swear ffs
so me
When I meet someone new, I straight-up say, "I apologize in advance for forgetting your name." It usually gets a chuckle, and an admittance that they'll probably forget my name, too.
Which is great, because then neither of us feels embarrassed when the inevitable moment comes.
I wish it was this easy. Somehow people I forget the names of all have elephant memories.
Oh, I listen. And I forgot after two minutes. What's worse is I can't remember faces either.
I listen, repeat the name a few times in my head. Tell myself that this time I'll remember it. And then I forget anyway.
The daughter of friends was in Japan for six months and when she came back I didn't recognize her face. Not because she changed so much, but because I don't have a large face cache.
Oh, and I have no clue what her name is...
Luckily faces I'm excellent at. I can even remember what we discussed. But I have no idea what your name is.
When I finally remember the person, I can recall weirdly specific memories like "oh yeah we met 2 years ago, it was a tuesday, you made potato with garlic and wore an orange jacket".
One must meet me on at least three separate occasions before their name earns a place in my memory.
I think we should only exchange names on the third meeting.
I can trump this:
Remembering your name depends on things I can't even name. E.g. in my direct social vicinity are two people. Really nice, I like them and I do know their names now, after like 2yrs knowing them. But, for the love of any deity, I don't know who got which name. I do remember their faces and they're not like twins.
It makes up for so many embarrassing situations it makes me angry. Like where one of them said hi to me and then I meet the other one. Or not. I don't know. Do I say "hi" now (to the one I met before) and look like a dumb dingdong, or do i ignore the greeting and look like an impolite Dingdong (to the one i haven't met)...
That's all beside the not-easily remembering names at all.
I would absolutely dominate at competitive name-forgetting.
I have the same problem.
I've gotten pretty good at using different memory techniques. I can recite pi to 150 decimal places, but it's so hard to remember a name, when you don't listen.
It's not like you're ever going to use their name, anyway.
I do that.