“What’s your name again?”
After introducing myself and having multiple conversations with somebody, I am still sometimes greeted with this line.
The same people who knew my name in elementary school struggle to come up with it in junior year. They stare at my face, trying to recover an inkling as to what my name might be, while my stomach sinks and I grow irritated at the lack of remembrance, feeling like I just lost a connection with somebody I wanted to know.
So, to reintroduce myself, my name is Evelyn Junia.
A name is one of the most important things to remember aboutsomebody to truly get to know them on a deeper level, so this seemed a necessary interjection before sharing my opinions.
The real problem of forgetfulness starts after someone forgets my name even though we have talked multiple times.
When having a one-off conversation with somebody, I have low expectations that they recall my name–in fact, I’m impressed if they do. But when it becomes a repeated reminder after multiple conversations, that is when the irritation starts to set in. My respect for someone drops, and our connection that we might have had previously splinters away.
Unfortunately, the excuse of “I’m just bad with names,”can be true; people do significantly struggle to remember names. Jobs and hobbies tend to be remembered at a higher rate than names, at nearly 70 percent, while only 30 percent of names are successfully recalled after a first interaction, according to “Memory for proper names: Age differences in retrieval,” a 1986 study done by the British Psychological Society.
Yet even though that study is dated, nearly 76 percent of South students have reported that someone has forgotten their name even though they thought that person should have known, according to a nonscientific study taken by 306 students conducted by The Oracle.
The pattern stems from the idea that names are relatively arbitrary; names appear to have no real meaning beyond a defining word because they do not specify claims about you as a person—what you like to do for fun, where you live, or personality traits.
But that does notmean that forgetting a name has no effect.
People report feeling slight negative feelings, like irritability and annoyance, when someone has forgotten their name, according to “How does it feel when people forget your name or name you incorrectly?”, a 2025 article from Names: A Journal for Onomastics. I find myself reacting the same exact way; if someone I have known for a long time, or somebody that I have consistently reminded of my name, suddenly forgets it, I am irritated the second the reminder of my name slips off my tongue.
Names can be difficult for people to remember, but that does not mean that we shouldn’t put in an effort to try and recall them, especially with the negative feelings that accompany the frequent, “What’s your name again?” comment.
Ways to proactively try and remember someone’s name include using their name frequently after just hearing it, and verifying what someone wishes to be called, including spelling, according to “Seven Tricks to Remembering Names,” a 2018 article published by Boston University. After people kept forgetting my name, remembering theirs developed into my own superpower. It is easy for me to remember names now because I know the annoyed feeling I get when somebody forgets mine. By using the strategies above, especially verifying what someone wishes to be called, remembering names I encounter has been much easier.
While remembering names is difficult in practice, that does not mean you should give up completely when you think you might forget. Put in the effort to remember someone’s name, because you never know when someone will forget yours. 
