Darren, Darrel, or Darnel?

Hollie and I are leading High School Life Groups this year. Since it's her first time, she was given a copy of Help! I'm a Volunteer Youth Worker! by Doug Fields. It's a fairly short book with quick chapters of thoughts, ideas, and wisdom from Doug. I decided to skim through it and toward the middle I hit the chapter on names.

"For most kids, their name is their greatest possession. Remembering a teenager's name communicates significance." (Chapter: Name-Dropping Allowed Here)

This is very true for students and adults alike. Remember one's name makes the person feel special, important, and worthy. Forgetting someone's name can be embarrassing and sometimes insulting.

I'm actually really bad with names. I have this strange talent where I can remember exactly where I met someone and how we met (literally anyone), but names always slip from my memory!

A trick that most people use that doesn't help me at all is repeating the person's name during your conversation with them. Ten minutes later, I can't remember if it was Craig or Carl who I was talking with! It doesn't mean that the person isn't important, it just means that I'm an idiot when it comes to names!

Here's what I do to remember names:

When I meet someone for the first time, I take note of their name and think, "I only have to remember this name for 10 minutes." Sometimes I'll visualize the person with a friend who has the same name. A big group of Brians hanging out helps quite a bit.

Once the conversation is over, I quickly bust out my phone and go to the notes app. I have a list of every person I've met, no matter how insignificant the meeting was. I enter the name and next to it I write a short note about the person. Maybe it's what we talked about. Maybe it's how they look. Sometimes it's something interesting that they do.

I rarely refer back to this list because taking 90 seconds to jot things down usually helps me visually remember the person's name. Here's an example:

Steve: El Toro, plays trumpet, looks like Hurley from Lost.

Rudy: Steve's friend, frist time at church, made joke about throwing him a football in slow motion... then crying.

Alisha: Ran camera 2 this week. Has British accent. Works at Rubys.

Kyle: Volunteer, just married, graduated from IVC.

Once I have this list, I find it very easy to remember names. On top of that, it's really easy for me to remember something special about the conversation. Next time I see Steve, I'm going to ask him about the trumpet. When I hear the British accent, I'll remember her name is Alisha. When I throw a football in slow motion, I'll be expecting Rudy to catch it :)