29 July 20266 min read

Six memory experts' methods for remembering names, compared

Dale Carnegie, Jim Kwik, Harry Lorayne, Nelson Dellis, Chester Santos and Ron White: what each name-memory method asks you to do.

By Namefinity editorial team · Read about our guides

Well-known methods for remembering names use many of the same ideas. They ask you to listen, say the name, link it with something and practise it later. Each teacher puts the steps together in a different way.

This guide uses books, talks and articles published by the people below. None of them has reviewed or supported Namefinity. We compare the steps in each method and ask whether they are easy to use during a real conversation.

Which method is most practical? Jim Kwik and Chester Santos offer the simplest steps for a normal introduction. Harry Lorayne and Ron White use picture-based memory tricks that take more work. Dale Carnegie explains why names matter to people. Nelson Dellis shows what long training can achieve.

For daily life, listen to the full name, use it once, link it with one real detail and write it down. That evening, think of the person's face or the conversation and say the name before checking your note.

The methods at a glance

Expert	Core emphasis	Easy live?	Requires imagery?	Includes later review?
Dale Carnegie	Names make people feel individually recognised	Yes	No	Not as a specific system
Jim Kwik	Seven-step BE SUAVE routine	Yes	One step	Practice is explicit
Chester Santos	Repeat, use, connect, say goodbye by name	Yes	Optional advanced layer	Implied through use
Harry Lorayne	Substitute word linked to a facial feature	Harder	Yes	The image becomes the retrieval cue
Ron White	Facial feature as a "file" for an animated name image	Harder	Yes	Yes, explicitly
Nelson Dellis	Trainable mnemonic skill applied at competition scale	With training	Commonly	Training is central

Dale Carnegie: the social reason

Dale Carnegie taught that a person's name is a very important sound to them. His training group still says that names can help people feel seen and valued.

This gives you a reason to care, but not a full memory plan. Caring may help you listen. It does not tell you what to do after hearing, "Hi, I'm Amara."

The social aim is simple. Remember the person so you can use their name in a warm, natural way.

Jim Kwik: BE SUAVE

Jim Kwik uses seven steps called BE SUAVE:

Believe you can improve rather than rehearsing "I'm bad with names."
Exercise the skill through practice.
Say it back after hearing it.
Use it naturally in conversation.
Ask about spelling, origin or meaning where appropriate.
Visualize a memorable image for the name.
End it by using the name when saying goodbye.

This is the widest daily plan in the list. It covers listening, saying the name, adding meaning, making a picture and using the name again.

Seven steps are a lot during an introduction. Questions about where a name comes from are not always welcome. Asking how to say or spell a name is useful. Treating someone's name like a strange object is not. A shorter version is: say it, use it, make one link, end with it.

Chester Santos: four conversational moves

Chester Santos, the 2008 USA Memory Champion, gives four short steps on his site:

immediately repeat the name.
ask a question using it.
connect it with anything you already know.
make one final effort to use it when saying goodbye.

This is one of the easier methods to use in a conversation. You can link the name with a famous person, a place, a picture or someone with the same name. Santos saves harder picture tricks for people who want more help.

The method does not give a long-term schedule. The four steps can help you learn the name at first. If you need it months later, use a photo or meeting note to practise it again the next day, then after several days and a week.

Harry Lorayne: make the face tell you the name

Harry Lorayne wrote and taught about names and faces. He turns a name into a picture. He then makes the picture move on one clear part of the person's face.

"Gordon" might become a garden growing around a distinctive eyebrow. When you see the face again, the feature is meant to cue the garden, which cues Gordon.

A 1978 study tested Lorayne's picture method for people's names. Other studies have also tested the use of pictures and sound links. The idea is to turn a new sound into a picture that means something to you.

The method takes work. You must hear the name, turn it into a picture, study the face and make the picture move. That is hard while someone is still talking. It may work better after the talk for a name you keep forgetting.

Ron White: the facial feature is a file

Two-time USA Memory Champion Ron White publishes a five-part method:

silently ask yourself for the person's name so you pay attention.
choose one part of the face as the "file."
turn the name into a picture.
picture it moving on that part of the face.
review after leaving and again later.

White recommends developing standard pictures for common names, such as a stove for Steve or a brain for Brian, so the conversion becomes faster with practice.

This method includes later practice, which some picture methods leave out. It also takes time to learn. You are building a set of pictures as well as learning people.

Nelson Dellis: what trained scale looks like

Nelson Dellis is a six-time USA Memory Champion. His official biography lists a current US record of 235 names in fifteen minutes, and his book Remember It! explicitly covers the names of people you meet alongside other everyday memory tasks.

The result shows what long training can do in a set task. It is not a fair target for a normal talk over coffee.

Dellis shows what deep training can do. A daily method can use the same ideas with fewer steps and fewer names.

What the six approaches share

Strip away the branding and the common sequence is clear:

Listen. You cannot remember a name that you did not hear.

Say it. Repeat the name or use it once.

Link it. Join the name with a real detail, a picture or someone else with the same name.

Practise it. That evening, think of the face or conversation and say the name before checking your note.

The first three steps happen during the introduction. The last step is easy to forget, mainly when many people each need practice on a different day.

A practical combined method

For most introductions:

Hear the full name and say it back.
Ask for pronunciation if uncertain.
Attach one real detail from the conversation.
Use the name once when leaving.
Write it down immediately afterwards.
Think of the person's face that evening and say the name before checking your note. Try again the next day.

If a name keeps failing, add Lorayne-style imagery on the second pass. That keeps the powerful but expensive part for the memories that need it.

No one person owns the ideas of listening, making pictures or practising from memory. Learn what each method asks you to do, then choose the few steps that work in a real room.