This is a first for A Miracle A Day... a guest post. This is one that I, personally, could use, and I hope that you find it useful as well.

Here it is, then, a guest post from Gaetano at http://www.fruitfultime.com/.

By far the best technique to impress when you are networking and building relationships with prospective clients or business partners is to remember their names. Can you remember the last time someone remembered your name how flattered you felt? When someone addresses you with your name, you feel that you are important.

Our name is something hard wired into our brain. This is quite natural. Our parents were the first to call us using our name and therefore it is something we react to subconsciously. When we hear our name we pay more attention to what is being said and there is a higher probability that we will act upon something when we are addressed by our name. Therefore, it is invaluable for you to remember peoples’ names if you want to draw and keep the attention of someone, be it a friend at a party or a potential client in a business meeting.

Also, since many people have trouble remembering names, if you manage to remember names using the below techniques you will manage to stand out from the rest of the crowd. You will also come across as a bright person and this definitely gives bonus points to your charm score.

The above was just a summary of the benefits of remembering names. I hope it was enough to convince you how important it is to remember names when networking and socialising. If you are like how I used to be and you keep on forgetting names, then I suggest you start following these tips. The following tips can help you remember more names and in doing so help you build stronger relationships both in your business and in your personal life.

Make Sure You Get It Correct From The Beginning

It happened once to me and I will make sure it will not happen again. I once was introduced to a person and I didn’t get the name right. I didn’t ask him to repeat his name since I was embarrassed. I hoped that his name will be mentioned in a conversation. But it didn’t happen. I still have the cell phone number saved with “Unknown name” as his name. I can still remember that this person was an English teacher.

So pay attention when you get introduced. Make sure you get the name right as from the beginning so as to avoid embarrassing situations like the one I have described above.

Call The Person By Their Name

Once you get introduced address the person using his/her name. Do this for two reasons. First of all to make sure that you got the name right. If you got the name wrong you want the other person to politely correct you before you go ahead and memorise the name.

The second reason is because such a technique will help you to associate the name with the person and his/her characteristics like face, voice and general character. Such association will help you remember the name more and will come handy if you meet that person another time.

For instance, I find myself better at remembering voices rather than faces, especially where women are concerned. Women have a tendency to change hair style, making them look completely different. Even though years pass their voices remain the same. Hence I find myself remembering more names by associating a name with a voice.

Finally, calling a person by his name makes the conversation more personal and enjoyable.

Ask How To Spell It

If someone has a rare name and you do not know how to pronounce it or spell it you could say something like “That’s an interesting name. How do you spell it?” This way you will get the information you need without sounding boring. I also understand that this technique highly depends on the situation in which you are socialising. If you are in a formal meeting you don’t want to ask how a name is spelt. But if you are socialising in an informal way, then it will be a good idea to ask how a name is spelt. No, such question is not intrusive but it shows interest. Once you know how to spell the name, try to spell the name in your mind by visualizing the spelling of the name. This process further helps you memorize names.

Associate The Name With A Characteristic Of The Person

When you get introduced to a person try to ask for some details about the person like what s/he does, hobbies etc. The more information you know about a person the more you have to associate with the name. It is very hard to remember a name which is not put into context. By getting information about the person, you will associate the newly learned name with a context.

这是个人博客“每天一奇迹”的第一篇文章。文章中所提到的方法，我个人认为很有用，希望对你也有同样作用。 下面就是从Gaetano的 http://www.fruitfultime.com/ 上拿来的博文。

到目前为止，如果你想广建人脉，和潜在的客户或合作伙伴建立稳定的关系，最为行之有效的方法无疑是记住他们的名字。你还记不记得最近一次当你听到别人叫你的名字时，是多么受宠若惊呀？听见别人喊自己的名字，你就会发觉自己的重要性。

我们自己的名字已经在我们的脑海里根深蒂固了。这个很自然。我们的父母是最早叫我们名字的人，从此以后，听到自己的名字，我们就会有一种潜意识的反应。当发现别人提及我们的名字时，我们就会竖起耳朵想听听到底讲了些什么。当别人一喊我们的名字，我们更有可能形成一种条件反射，立即答应。因此，如果你想引起并且保持某个人的注意——可能是想和派队上的某个人成为朋友，也可能是想让商务会议上的某个潜在客户对你有印象——记住他们的名字最有效。

同时，因为很多人不能记住别人的名字，那么如果你通过以下的这些方法能记住，就必然会从人群中脱颖而出。而且人家会觉得你很聪明，这也就大大提高了你的个人魅力指数。

以上所讲的不过笼统概括了一下记住人名的好处。但我希望能就此让你认识到，在交友和社交时，能记住别人的名字是多么的重要。要是你现在就像我过去那样，老忘记别人的名字，我就建议你看看下面的方法。下面所提到的方法能帮助你记住更多的名字，从而能在事业上和生活中帮你与人建立更加坚固的人际关系。

1、确定你一开始就叫对别人的名字

这种事我身上就发生过一回，希望以后再也不会重演。我一次被介绍给个人，但是当时我就没把他的名字弄对。因为觉得不好意思，我也没让他重复一遍。我就盼着聊天的时候能再听到他的名字，事实上却没有如我所愿。所以，一直到现在，我手机里仍以“未知”做他的名字来储号码。我倒是还记得那人是个英语老师。

2、要叫别人的名字

一旦你们彼此介绍了，就要叫他/她的名字。这样做有两个原因。首先，你可以核对一下，名字是不是记对了。如果弄错了，对方就可以礼貌地指出你的错误，在你还没有巩固错误之前就改过来。

其次，因为直接喊人名，能帮你把他的名字和这个人的一些特征联系起来，比如说长相，声音以及大致的性格。这种联系能帮你强化记忆，并且你一见到他人就能脱口叫出他的名字。

举例来说，我发现自己比起长相更容易记住声音，尤其是对女性。女人常常换发型，让自己焕然一新。但是无论过多久，她们的声音是不会变的。因此我觉得自己通过把他们的名字和声音联系起来，就能记住更多的名字。

最后，叫别人名字，能使整个交谈更明确，也更愉快。

3、问一下名字怎么拼

如果某些人的名字比较生僻，你不知道怎么念或怎么拼，你不妨这样讲，“这个名字很有意思哪。怎么拼写呢？”这样，你既可能解开你的疑问，也不会落了俗套。当然，我很清楚，这个方法是否得以实施，很大程度上取决于你所处的社交环境。如果是在一个很正式的会议场合，你最好还是别问怎么拼写。但如果是比较随意的场合，问一下倒是个不错的方法。而且，这样的问题也不会显得无礼，相反让人觉得你幽默有趣。一旦知道怎么拼写以后，就在你的脑里通过把名字视觉化加以记住。这个过程就让你进一步地加深了印象。

4、把名字和人的某一特征联系起来

当别人介绍给你认识时，试着问些关于这人的一些细节问题，像是职业了，爱好了，等等。没有个上下环境，记名字当然不容易。通过对他的了解，你就可以运用上下环境把这个刚认识的人的名字给记住了.