3 Ways to Get Better with Remembering Names

Get expert advice on strengthening an essential networking skill

Names written on Post-it Notes

In her role at Duke, Cam Kelly’s memory gets put to the test.

As Associate Vice President for Principal Gifts for Duke Alumni Engagement and Development, she maintains a mental rolodex of Duke alumni and donors, remembering their names, class years and how they hope to support at Duke.

Her work also requires her to have a strong knowledge of the Duke faculty and leaders who spearhead the projects donors are interested in funding.

“People I regularly work with make fun of my ‘steel trap’ memory,” said Kelly, who has worked at Duke for 16 years. “We work with the entire Duke community, so it’s an important thing to be able to remember people’s names, what they do, and where they sit in the organization.”

Associate Vice President for Principal Gifts for Duke Alumni Engagement and Development Cam Kelly

While remembering names is a central piece of building a strong professional network, it’s not a skill that’s especially easy to do.

Dr. Sarah Cook, Director of Clinical Neuropsychology in the Duke Department of Neurology, said difficulty remembering names is encountered by people of all ages.

“This happens to everybody,” said Cook, who is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. “As a neuropsychologist, this is probably the number one complaint I hear, regardless of patient age, is remembering people’s names. It’s pretty common because it’s hard.”

In addition to simply listening and focusing when being introduced to someone new, here are a few strategies to make remembering a name less challenging.

Say the Name

A simple approach Kelly adopts to help her remember the name of someone she’s just met is to use the person’s name aloud in conversation. By subtly repeating and weaving the new name into what she’s saying, she can give her brain a few more opportunities to connect the person with to their name.

“It just helps you remember something a little more when you hear it in your own voice,” Kelly said.

Director of Clinical Neuropsychology in the Duke Department of Neurology Dr. Sarah Cook

Build Associations

The reason somebody’s name can be especially tricky to remember is that it’s a piece of information that’s not easily connected to anything else about the person.

“It’s hard to remember names, more than other things, because names are pretty arbitrary,” said Cook, the Director of Clinical Neuropsychology. “A lot of people say they can remember faces. That’s because there are a lot more cues that go along with faces. They’re more unique to the person. But names are a meaningless thing that doesn’t really tell you anything about the person.”

That’s why Cook recommends creating your own connections between the name and the person it belongs to.

If there are recognizable words contained in a person’s name, visualize them. Take notice if the name rhymes with a word that might describe the person. Or if the person has the same name as someone else if your life, make a mental note of it. Regardless of the nature of the connection, simply having something to help your mind find its way back to a person’s name is beneficial.

“There are many different strategies you can use to associate people and names,” Cook said. “Just having any kind of cue can help trigger a memory like a name.”

Cook said names like hers aren’t too tricky to remember, since envisioning a chef or a kitchen can help somebody recall her last name. But other, less-common, names may require a little more creativity.

Be Curious

As someone who relies on having a strong network in her Duke Alumni Engagement and Development work, Kelly knows that building relationships goes well beyond learning names. That’s why, upon meeting someone, she asks questions to learn as much as she can about them.

By learning about a person’s family, their work and the things they’re passionate about, their names become just one piece of a more-memorable package of information.

“As you ask people questions, and they reveal more information about themselves, they become much easier to remember,” Kelly said.

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