Remembering faces/remembering names

[Miss Chicken]

A few weeks ago a woman out walking her dog came up to me and said 'Excuse me, did you use to be [mentions my maiden name]. She said she used to go at the same primary school as me, which means we were in the same class 47 years ago. I asked her what he name was and she said 'Glennys' and then I remembered her slightly as she was the only person I have ever known with that name.

I was astounded she recognised me and remembered my name as well, as I would be hard-pressed to recognised the faces of people I hadn't seen in decades though generally I do better at recognising names.

So I am asking people here - how good are you at recognising names and faces?

 

[Spot's Meow]

Interesting! You know, I think I am much better at remembering faces than names. I can distinctly remember some people I went to primary school with, and I feel like I would have a good chance of recognizing them if I saw them today. Though, that would be difficult with some people because their appearance changes so much once they have hit puberty. However, other people look practically the same for decades.

Now names, that is a different story...I am really terrible at remembering names. There are many people I have worked on the same floor as for years and we say hi when we pass in the hallway, but I have no clue what their name is. Unless I am talking with that person on at least a weekly basis, I am not going to remember.

 

[B.J.]

Now names, that is a different story...I am really terrible at remembering names. There are many people I have worked on the same floor as for years and we say hi when we pass in the hallway, but I have no clue what their name is. Unless I am talking with that person on at least a weekly basis, I am not going to remember.

Pretty much the same here. I'm only saved by all the ID cards and names on cubicles everywhere.

 

[Timewalker]

I'm better with names than faces.

I've been flabbergasted, though, at how some of the teachers at my schools knew me by face and name and I'd never been in any of their classes.

The conclusion I came to is that teachers must gossip about their students even more than students gossip about teachers.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

I am soooo bad at putting names to faces. It was a real problem when I (briefly) taught high school. My students were all in the same year, so they were all about the same age, plus there was no racial/ethnic diversity at all, plus they wore effing uniforms. I swear they all looked alike!

 

[Velocity]

I have trouble with names. Sometimes I can get the first letter, but not the rest of the name for a while.

 

[auntiehill]

I'm terrible at it. Although, I have come to understand that, when meeting new people, I tend not to look them in the eye very much---nerves, I guess. So I don't register the name and face; I just don't put them together because I wasn't actually looking at them very much.

One thing I remember from my college psychology classes is that unattractive or odd-looking faces are far easier for people to remember--a fact that always sticks with me when people I haven't seen in twenty years remember me while I have NO idea who they are. I guess being goofy-looking makes me hard to forget.

 

[Pondwater]

Yes and no. I remember who I want to remember and forget about those I don't. I'm selective like that.

 

[Tosk]

I remember faces very well, but terrible with names.

 

[maneth]

Usually I don't. I have trouble retaining oral information anyway, if I want to remember something, I must write it down, preferably on paper. I have a decent memory for faces, but I'm hopeless with names. When my son was in kindergarten, he had a substitute teacher who said that she learned 80 new children's names and faces in a day.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I've been flabbergasted, though, at how some of the teachers at my schools knew me by face and name and I'd never been in any of their classes.

The conclusion I came to is that teachers must gossip about their students even more than students gossip about teachers.

Or, since their job involves memorizing large numbers of student's names and connecting it with new faces each year, they're more practiced at recalling that information even from students they've only seen around campus. Or they've developed mnemonic devices to quickly remember names.

 

[Timewalker]

Or, since their job involves memorizing large numbers of student's names and connecting it with new faces each year, they're more practiced at recalling that information even from students they've only seen around campus. Or they've developed mnemonic devices to quickly remember names.

Fair enough, but it still felt weird to have one of the Grade 6 teachers from a county 1-9 school that I didn't attend during Grade 6 (because I spent that year at a city school) greet me by name at the local mall. The only connection I can think of is that he was friends with the music teacher, and in junior high I was one of her assistants who helped put the Christmas concert together in Grades 8 and 9.

Even more bizarre was to be greeted by name at a local grocery store by one of the high school physics teachers... and I never took physics in high school. In fact, the science classes I did take (biology and chemistry) were clear on the other side of the building (it was a large school and some of the teachers never went from one wing to another; they even had separate staff rooms).

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I am far better at faces than names. If I see someone I used to know I will remember them, though often have no clue what they're called.

 

[TrickyDickie]

I can identify the faces of actors even if I haven't seen them in decades. Names may take a while....of paging through the ol' mental rolodex.

 

[Myko]

I am amazing with names, I can pretty much remember every actor I've learned the name of and the names of all the toys I ever played with 20 years ago. And I could tell you the names of everyone I've went to school with.

I have a very hard time remembering events and plots or quotes from movies.

 

[Amaris]

I am terrible at names and faces. Well, okay, I'm not bad at names and faces, but I'm terrified of getting it wrong, so I say nothing and just continue to doubt myself.

 

[Naira]

I remember faces but I'm having trouble with names. I see some old classmates on the street when I go back to my hometown but rarely remember their names. The same goes for my students from the time I was a professor.

 

[SPCTRE]

the wife has supernatural face recognition skills, which is good because she has to make up for my shortcomings in that area

 

[B.J.]

I've been flabbergasted, though, at how some of the teachers at my schools knew me by face and name and I'd never been in any of their classes.

The conclusion I came to is that teachers must gossip about their students even more than students gossip about teachers.

Or, since their job involves memorizing large numbers of student's names and connecting it with new faces each year, they're more practiced at recalling that information even from students they've only seen around campus. Or they've developed mnemonic devices to quickly remember names.

My wife's a high school teacher. They definitely gossip. But they're also involved with a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that doesn't necessarily involve the classes they teach. So while they may not have had a particular student in their class, they have probably come across their name a lot.

 

[Doom Shepherd]

I am okay with faces. I am crap with names unless I find something to associate them with.

I work in an office with a Secretary named Bobbie Jo. She is out on extended maternity leave, and has temporarily been replaced with a woman named Bonnie. I cannot count how many times I have called one of them the other's name. 100 times, and it's only been two months? At least "Bonnie" and "Bobbie" are close.

At my old job, the "Friends of the Library" head called me "Steve" or "Mike" or "Jack" for 6 years. Any variant of "Robert" at all? Never once.