Only last night I was telling the most useful way of remembering names that I learned in US, but not in UK.
You will know the technique… once introduced to someone used their name as often as possible in the conversation. Not so often as to appear a dullard and automaton, but often enough to establish their name in your mind.
I’m not sure why this was not so common in UK; maybe it was some misplaced sense that a “name” was private, secret, cherished and that one had to earn the right to use it. I remember many times the significance of times when Mr, Mrs, Ms was transformed into John, Mary or Elizabeth. This probably explains my ongoing discomfort and frustration when a tele-marketer announces my name at the beginning of a sales pitch. My response, once famously used on an episode of Fawlty Towers, is “Do I know you?”.
The NYT above gives stellar advice to those holding babies for the first time – it begins with sharing names.
It seems a little strange that the deeper, longer a relationship of love continues, names are used rarely substituted by “darling”, “my love” or more private titles. I think this is when the sending of a note or card gives opportunity to write the name, to write it with love and with the heart.