How do some people remember names so easily?

[Olumin]

Look, I love watching Vinny streaming on twitch every so often, and try to catch up with his streams when I have time. The guy is able to recall the names of so many actors, musicians and celebrities its insane.

This leads me to ask: How are some people able to remember the names of celebrities? I’m not talking about remembering the names of people close to you like of your uncle or niece, but many people seem to remember names of people on TV, in politics and in movies so easily. I can recall a few, but only the absolute most famous ones literally everyone knows.

I couldn’t even remember the names of all of my classmates after a whole year back in the day. I’m horrible with names. It often takes me years to properly remember names, and even then, it’s often either just the first or last name. I often forget names even after I just heard then minutes prior. I got certified koala-brain-syndrome (KBS). So that’s my excuse. I can often only recall names of people that I personally interact with on a regular basis, and that takes time. 

I just don’t get it. Some of you must have this gift as well, I’m sure you don’t even think about it, or thought it was normal. I could never remember the names of celebrities, since these people are entirely irrelevant to me and play no important part in my life. 

How do they do it? Maybe some of you with KBS out there as well? Wanna share your suffering?

[tp4tissue]

Pretty sure a person needs persistent thoughts placed on or relevant to other hughmahnns to develop the associations.

Tp4 has seen thousands of movies, can't name the majority of the actors/actresses, never cared to find out. don't even remember their stage names from the movie.

[fohat.digs]

don't even remember their stage names from the movie.

After being in sales for much of my adult life, I have worked hard to remember names of prospects and customers and it does not come easy to me. It takes some effort, but I think that the amount of time you spend looking at a face is a big determinant of how strongly it imprints on you. Keeping the written name associated with the face is a separate but equally important task. And there have been situations where I spent considerable time in telephone conversations with someone without meeting them in person, and it is not much harder to associate the name with the voice than it is to associate it with the face.

That said, it is absolutely true that it comes much easier to some people than others, but it is an invaluable skill that we should all train ourselves to do.

And to your point about character names versus actors' names - unless it is an epic-level icon like James Bond I usually don't remember character names. But that said, the longer I am immersed in a show, the more likely I am to remember character names.

[tp4tissue]

After being in sales for much of my adult life, I have worked hard to remember names of prospects and customers and it does not come easy to me.

've met 2 name-droppers in my life.  One kept names of people on his ipod (the HDD ipod) met in 2003 ish, washingtonDc.

The second one met in China, he was obsessed with making political alliances to improve his social mobility. This dude constantly sent <bribes> to Tp4 <to distribute> because Tp4 was gate-keeping for his rich uncles.  Guessing this guy remembered everyone's names because of all the little from-cards he'd fill out all day. He'd also send 1/3 of the <club girls> little stuffed toys every other week and ask them out.  These were most likely compensated outings. That or these girls were spys.

Alot of these guys kept little black books too, not sure if that had many names though.

[iri]

I got certified koala-brain-syndrome (KBS).

Once upon a time, GH had a user called baldgye, who would sometimes start a post with 'as an official retard,' (he was a dyslexic).

[Kavik]

I am terrible with names in general, but it varies by context. Real people's names are hard to remember unless I interact with them a lot (when I am introduced to someone new, the name exits my brain as fast as it went in). Characters' names in movies or books are impossible to remember (this is especially the case when characters are described in expository dialogue rather than shown); regarding movies, I almost always refer to the characters by the actors' names. I suppose I'm decent with actors' names but no other celebrities. I am somehow very good at recognizing actors' faces. I can often trace an actor back to some other movie or show no matter how small a role. Just last night, I watched a random episode of The Twilight Zone and recognized the main actor as the man who played Dr. No, even though I don't think I've seen it all the way through if at all in the past decade or two.

As far as remembering musicians, producers, artists, etc. I have no idea. I remember a common type of joke in sitcoms used to be making a comparison to some real person by name, I suppose in order to conjure a funny image, but the number of times I've even known who the person is much less laughed at it was maybe once or twice.