Do you have difficulty remembering names of people?

[Judge]

Yep, that's me. Can't remember names and I have never figured out any method or system to do so.
When I was 6 years old in 1958, I calculated the distance of a light-year in miles just for fun. I still remember without hesitation or thought: five trillion eight hundred sixty-five billion six hundred ninety-six million miles.
Hmmm, I should use that as a password. I'll never forget that!

I'm not sure it's any real "method" as such, but I do periodically try to recite a series of names of notable persons and the words "corriander" and "cilantro". Purely as an exercise in memory.

Though on a neurological level it fascinates me over how I lose names in short term memory, while I don't seem to lose any memorized numbers at all.

As for passwords, I have long since made them sufficiently complex enough that they are impossible for me to even consider memorizing.

 

[Jumpinbare]

When I was 6 years old in 1958, I calculated the distance of a light-year in miles just for fun. I still remember without hesitation or thought: five trillion eight hundred sixty-five billion six hundred ninety-six million miles.
Hmmm, I should use that as a password. I'll never forget that!

I carry 61 decimal places of Pi around in my head. I only stop at 60 because the book that I had only went that far.
Didn't seem necessary to learn more digits later.

 

[paloftoon]

Yes sometimes.

 

[ilovetochat87]

I find that I often forget names of people I have met or worked with a year or more ago. Sometimes I remember them much later after an interaction, but I often find myself forgetting, and I feel awful about it in the moment when I see them somewhere.

In my career I have trained a lot of apprentices. I like working with new trainees and enjoy teaching them tricks and uncommon knowledge to working with electricity and all its associated pipe, rules, and calculations.

On different jobs or at the training hall I sometimes encounter people I trained or worked with in the past and I often cannot remember their names. It’s an awkward situation for me every time because I just kind of brain freeze when someone enthusiastically greets me. It feels nice to be remembered with such positivity but also cringe when I can’t remember names. I remember faces most of the time.

Do you have trouble with names of people you don’t see often?

I have this problem and I was told by people on here years ago that it was face blindness and I've researched it and been like okay yeah that's an autistic thing but I don't have true face blindness because what true face blindness is is when you look at a picture of somebody you know like your child or your mother brother sister father and etc you look at the photo and you're like I don't know who that is but if you see them in person you know who they are oh they are obviously that's my daughter but if you look at a picture of your daughter you're like I don't recognize that picture who is that and the reason being is because the picture is all scrambled like a Picasso painting all the pieces don't mix up it's like you took a picture of someone and you swapped all the pieces took the face turned it left took the ear put it upside down on the bottom of the face put the chin on the head stuff like that and then you glued it together and gave that to someone and said who is this and they're like I don't know who this is that's not a person well it is it's just all scrambled and they don't have a single ability in their brain to be able to take the pieces put them correctly and see the picture oh that's my daughter Kimberly. Etc etc. So it's very hard for them to recognize photos of people but that's not me I don't know what you would really call what it is. That I experience. I did a test online where it has a celebrity name and several pictures and you have to click the picture that matches that name or vice versa you have a picture and it goes with several names and you click the name or you can type in the name if it has that option and I couldn't get most of them right that's just not me I don't know how to do that and when I was given a IQ test in my I want to say I was like somewhere between 18 and 20 and they did like a question thing to ask me a bunch of questions and wrote down things as I was talking and basically they asked me who's the current president and at the time it was Obama and I couldn't tell you I was like I don't know I mean I do know but I couldn't tell you what it is and she said anything? I said he's black he's got big ears he has a very fashionable wife he's got two daughters but I can't tell you what his name is I can see it though and people laugh and they say oh my gosh you really said that he has big ears I'm like but he does that's a defining characteristic of him he has big ears I've seen people do care caricatures of him and they always make him have big ears that's one of his defining things anyways I couldn't tell you what his name was but I described him pretty well and the lady was like okay well do you know who the previous president is I'm like sure it's Bush and she said okay which Bush Junior or senior and I said Junior and she said okay, who is the current president I'm like I couldn't tell you and after she started writing it down and she's like do you want me to tell you I'm like yes please it's burning me inside and she goes Obama I'm like yes thank you I was just having a brain fart it was a bad one. But I do that I will go to text or call somebody and I couldn't tell you who it is I have a brain fart the minute that I go to call or text I like have to look them up in the phone book and I don't know and I have to go alphabetically from A to z in my phone book and as soon as I see the name my brain remembers it. But I couldn't tell you unless I saw the name and then my brain remembers that's the one! And there's even been moments when I'm at work and my coworker says oh yeah you can just take that to Lydia's desk I don't remember who Lydia is if she walk right past me I may not remember her I may not recognize that that's her I'm just not good with remembering people but we have a thing where everybody's picture is on the wall and it's like a thingy where we call it the break room mailboxes or the employee mailboxes or something like that and basically next to each person's face you can put gift cards or birthday cards or comments from a customer about them you know positive ones and stuff like that and so I basically I have to go up to their pictures and look and see their name to be able to like go out that picture that's Lydia like I look for Lydia and when I see her name I'm like that's Lydia okay I know where Lydia's desk is. It's bad and I keep joking dementia is real with this one and my mom goes stop saying that I really wish you would stop putting that juju in your life I wish you would stop manifesting that for yourself I'm like I'm just kidding but kind of not and she's like well stop it that really just upsets me that you talk about yourself like that but she doesn't get it I mean she swears honey everybody does it everybody has brain farts stop doing that to yourself you're not the only one that's how to brain fart I'm like but it's not like you think I have brain farts different than most people they're worse than most people I've considered maybe taking like fish oil or krill oil or light you know those little pill thingies or like I don't know CoQ10 whatever it is I need to take to help my brain cuz if I'm doing this now dementia will be bad when I'm old if I'm already having problems now. So I'm just glad to see that there's plenty of people out there that understand what this feels like you know. It's like when you used to be able to eat everything you want and now you can't because you have a lot of sensitivities to foods and you miss all those foods that you used to be able to eat regularly and people that are on a keto diet just because they're 113 lb 5 ft 7 and think that they're fat and they need to go on a diet according to themselves and they say oh I know how that feels and you look at them as if you know they don't and you're kind of giving them that really do you know kind of a look and they say man when I haven't had carbs in a week I know how that feels I miss carbs you don't have a ****ing clue go off with your bad self you have no idea who what you're talking about that's not even closely the same thing and that pisses me off when people try to think that's the same thing when you don't know what you're talking about quit trying to act like you know enjoying in the conversation and just shut up but when people really get what you're talking about and they've been there done that themselves it feels like finally I found my tribe I found my people I know I hate when people say that but that is kind of what it feels like in this particular sense in this particular situation I finally found the people that get me.

 

[Tiffany Kate]

Yep. And faces are worse.

When I first started in one of my jobs, it was ages before I figured out that two particular guys were actually not the same person. And even longer (once I worked out I wasn't seeing the same person twice as often) to be able to tell them apart. They don't even look alike, apart from being more or less the same height and both having brown hair.

I reliably recognise my husband (which is nice for both of us), but I can't picture his face in my mind all at once. I can do an eyebrow, or a nose, but not the whole face. If I try to visualise his whole face, it just... doesn't work. My mind sort of veers off at a tangent. Or the place where the face ought to be just goes blank.

If anyone ever robs a bank in front of me they will be absolutely safe.

Police officer: "Can you describe the robber?"
Me: "Human. Probably."
Police officer: "Could you be more specific? Eyes? Hair?"
Me: "I think he had them."

Name badges are one of the best inventions ever.

On the other hand, I can remember questions I was asked (and the answers) from years ago.

 

[Jumpinbare]

I kind of knew that similar looking people at work were different people, but without sneaking looks at their name tags, I couldn't have told you which one they were.

 

[ilovetochat87]

I can't remember the names of my great nieces and great nephews, my husband's more distant relatives, and friends' kids and grandkids, so I cheat. I put the kids' names in my cell phone under the "note" section for the contacts (phone numbers) list. I can check the notes before I have to interact with them. It helps.

I have done that before where I have reminded myself of important people like I met a neighbor and I could not remember what her name was so I wrote it down in my phone notepad app and her dog's name and that way I don't forget them cuz I keep having to like find out what her name is and I had to keep like practicing saying it to myself all the time so I didn't forget it and then when I met her again I wouldn't be like remind me what your name is every single time that's kind of embarrassing and there are times when I haven't seen people in years and then we run into each other at a park and I'm like that person looks familiar I know I know that person they look really familiar but I don't know if I know them and immediately they're like hi nice to see you again how you been and I just play along like I'm good and then in my head I'm thinking I did know that person hell if I know who they are and I don't want to be dumb and ask as if I forgot when they clearly do know who I am so that would be embarrassing if I don't know who they are or what if it's that they they know me cuz they think I'm somebody else and I'm not who they thought but I don't know that and they don't know that and so they're talking to the wrong person but neither of us know that and that's why I don't recognize them possibly but it does help if I write names down that way I don't have as much difficulty. But there has been times like I said we're it's been years or maybe I don't know them and they think that I'm somebody else and I don't really have any way to know and I'm embarrassed to ask just in case it was a case of I forgot them. Cuz how embarrassing is that? I'm sure you all can relate to this feeling like onset dementia her mom gets so frustrated she's like stop saying that to yourself that's really uncool that you do that to yourself I'm like what she's like I don't appreciate that you do that to yourself I really don't like that that you talk bad about yourself like that you need to be nicer to yourself I'm like well I mean it does feel like that because I know everybody knows everybody has had brain farts before you're not the first person to have a brain fart I'm like well you're right but her autistic people I think the brain farts are very scary that we forget it isn't quite like regular brain farts it's something different altogether she's like honey I've had rainbows but don't even know my own name something and I'm like I don't know about that I don't know that same level it's very embarrassing and humiliating. I was one time in high school I walked up to my best friend and I said god, what is your name she goes excuse me I'm like I could tell you anything you want to know about you I know who you are but I just am blanking on what your name is she's like I'm not even going to entertain that cuz I know you know who I am I'm like I do but I am having a bad brain fart I don't know what your name is and she's like it starts with an r and that's all I'm going to tell you cuz I know you know and I know this is a joke or something it can't be real I don't believe you don't know my name I don't I mean I do but I forgot it and she just did not understand that concept it was weird for her she didn't believe it she thought it was not true there's no way you that's not a thing I'm like what the **** is your name just tell me she goes no because I know you know it stop playing I'm like I know who You are you have two cats you like anime and video games one of your favorites is the Sims and Kingdom hearts you love saved by the Bell you have a brother you asked me anything but I just can't remember what your name is and after like 10 minutes of arguing back and forth she said Rebecca and she said it like she was annoyed like I pissed her off or something and I said thank you! But I really couldn't tell you I didn't know her long enough to pick 3 be able to look in his homework and be right which one of them is it and recognized by looking at the name and my brain would just know when I saw it it's embarrassing and I don't really know if there is to do about that what I could do to fix that can people don't understand if they haven't done this it's like honey everybody's had a brain fart okay well not like that. If you are not autistic you have not had a brain fart like that I feel like that level of brain fart outside of dementia is exclusive to autistic people. Or if you've had a traumatic brain injury. Please somebody tell me I'm not crazy and what do you do that helps you.