Discipline Names & Faces

Memorie names - Memory for names

Everyone needs to remember names. If you meet a new person, you are usually introducing yourself. Therefore your brain is already trained, isn't it? No, usually, this is not the case. The difficulty of remembering names is to quickly find a suitable image and to connect this image with the person. It is important to have a positive attitude towards the subject and to be really willing to remember the name. If you think: "I cannot remember the name" is the best way to develop a bad memory for names! In 50% of the cases in which a person could not remember a name, the person has not even understood the name. If you remember a name, it shows that you are interested in the person- at least your counterpart will interpret it in this way.You are attaching importance to the person indeed. At work it can be very important whether you are able or not to remember the full name of a person as well as two or three important points about which you discussed with this person. This makes the meeting a success. But not only at work, even in everyday life it is very important to have a good memory. Be patient at the beginning. It is only natural that you will find the exercises quite difficult at the beginning. But even with a little practice you'll be surprised how quickly your brain performance will increase!

As you already know, our brain thinks in pictures. As a consequence we should try to convert the name into a picture. It is not very useful to attach names to journey points because you have to remember the location of the name. How can we store the pictures? We use characteristic features we notice at a person as a "journey point". I have tried to split the names into categories:

Group	Examples
Job designations	Baker, Builder, Turner, Icemann, Fisherman, Painter, Sheepherder, Tailor, Weaver, Carpenter
Names with meaning	Apple, Bush, Field, Fly, Frog, Fox, House, Horn, Church, Clover, Nail, Runway, Bush, Forest, Train
Deduced names	Blumer (Flower), Haaret (hair), Bunk (bunker), Kirsch (cherry)
Compound names	Blankenhorn, Feldkirch, home plate, Mühleisen, Moosmann, Heubusch, Holzschuh, Falkenstein, Gutbrot
Fantasy names	Ischihara, Ranussky, Stankuva, Pesipalo, Gloschewski

For most of the names, there are good pictures. Fantasy names are more difficult. These names also have an origin as is the case for professions and significations. Since the origin can often be deducted only after thorough research, creativity is very helpful. Use your imagination to create mental images from meaningless and abstract names!

Most people offer a "mnemonic" to their name if you ask them and show them that you are interested. If you also have a difficult name as I do, Gloschewski, here's an example:
A glowing boss goes skiing
glowing, glow = English (ie front and rear with G W)
chief = schew < br> ski = ski (with i not Y).

Transform first names into pictures

What is true for first names is also true for last names. You should transform them into pictures. This is possible by using creativity and imagination. I have listed a few first names with the corresponding associations below. This should be an inspiration for your brain. But you should rather create your own pictures, because it will be easier for you to memorise them.

First name	Association
Horst	Eagle/Nest
Karsten	Case
Oliver	Olive
Thomas	Tomato
Walter	to falter
Anna	Pineapple
Brigitte	Bridge
Elke	Elk
Gabriele	Gable
Ellen	Elbow

With little practice, you will see "distinctive features" in the faces of the persons you meet. Features like pit marks, long, short, small or broad noses, thick and bushy eyebrows, etc.. You will directly recognise these features when meeting the person the next time and your story should be linked to these features. With some training your memory for names will improve dramatically!

Memorising Names & Faces: Memory for names

The aim is to memorise as many names and first names as possible. The combinations are fantasy combinations. You will never ever meet the persons with these names again.

The evaluation is based on competition rules which means that every first name or name which is correct, is taken into consideration. If you could only recall one name, this is not a problem. However, you will get one point less if names are not correct.

For the advanced participants there is also the following discipline: Memorising names & faces within 15 minutes. This discipline is part of the German Memory Championship and the World Memory Championship.

These are the different levels: