You’re Not Bad At Names, You Just Don’t Care

Good to See You, Champ! A Few Tricks, the Triple Truth, and Several Solutions for Improving Your Retention of Names

I started working at 17 as a camp counselor at a YMCA summer camp in the suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. When hundreds of kids return year after year and run up to their favorite rock climbing instructor, you can’t say “Who are you?”

Tricks Are For Kids

We had a lot of tricks about names back then. I used to say What’s up Kemosabe or What’s up Mustafa—to which most kids would respond—“I’m not Mustafa, I’m David!”

Then, as the adult managing the interaction, you can say “I know dude, nobody is named Mustafa, I was just messing with you!” At this point, you already got what you needed while sparing this cute kid's feelings.

Another great trick is to ask straightforwardly Hey, remind me your name again? When the dejected-looking kid responds “It’s Jeremy,” you say, I know Jeremy, I meant your last name, it's for a form I need to fill out!

Then Jeremy will crack a huge smile… because he’ll think you remembered the first part of his name… because you tricked him… because he’s nine.

These are the good kind of…