Introduction and asking about ‘name blindness’

I’m a violin/viola teacher. I get the names eventually if I know ‘so-and-so sits cello desk three, on the outside’. Then one day someone will be absent and they move up a chair and I’m stuck!

Yes, I’ve tried the name association thing. It does work - it just feels like a huge effort. After this many years, I’ve learnt to get away with not knowing, most of the time! I think I’d find a list of random numbers easier to memorise than names.

I’ve come up with so many tactics over the years to avoid having to do things like ‘can you go and fetch Dave’ because I often don’t know who Dave is.

I do have very good spatial awareness though. Everywhere’s mapped out, and even dates, numbers, abstract things I tend to see as patterns. With kids I teach, I get to know their name eventually if they sit in the same chair every day. If they move chairs, it becomes a bit of a lottery to whether I’ll remember!

 Stringcat so sorry to hear of your loss. Well, I never thought face blindness was a thing. I just thought I’ve always struggled to remember names!! I hope someone else will call the person or I spend minutes going through possible names in my head till I hit on the right one!

Is there also a name for forgetting how you are going to get where you’re going either on foot or by car?! I’ve done this since I learnt to drive and have to think of the place I’m going (sometimes that’s really hard to visualise) and then think back to where I am now to work out my route. If that doesn’t stick I have to keep doing it over and over again on the journey. Does anyone know if this is an autistic thing or just me?

I also have Name Blindness, exactly the same experience with names!! 

I was also a teacher (untill very recently). I'm 46 recently diagnosed. 

The hardest part is the embarrisment, shame and the feeling of uselessness that comes with it. I often end up calling people "dude", "chick" and other things. 

I seem to have memory issues in general. I can only seem to retain information which is highly important or interesting. 

A trick I used was to attach some form of meaning to a person. This could be anything. Breaking down their name phonetically (if it's a complex name). Assosicating the name with a simplar word or a rhyme or memory. For example one of my students was called Panashe. I could never remember his name, I broke it down phonetically and was able to remember Pan-Ash. I also remember I film which involved "Pan Air" or "Pan AM", so when I see him I think of the film. I see him, I remember the film, think in a pilots uniform and remember Pan-Ash. 

It's exhaughsting being autistic. 

Hi Stringcat congratulations on your diagnosis!!

I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your wife, your anchor and your shield.

Being diagnosed in later life can be difficult but then factor in your loss and that's a lot for anyone to carry.

I'm pleased you reached out here. You are not alone.

Sorry I don't know anything about name blindness BTW.

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I'm really very good at remembering faces, even decades after I last saw a particular person. I'm useless at remembering names, however. I think it is at least partly because when I am introduced to anyone I am so mentally preoccupied with smiling, looking them in the eye, gauging how firm a handshake to give and remembering to say some expected platitudes, that there is no space in my brain to take in their name. Thereafter relying on picking up other people using the name, or seeing it written down, which is not always successful in retaining it.

Stringcat said:

I’m a teacher

Hahaha, I’ve been there! It would take me MONTHS to learn students’ names. Thank goodness for attendance taking and the fact that I could relate students to specific instruments (I was a music professor).

We just met all our neighbors (I’m new in town), and my wife is amazed that I’ve already forgotten everyone’s names. I should have written them down

I think a lot of people are the same and can't remember names or put names to faces. I think many of us associate people with places, when I worked in a shop, many of our regular customers didn't know who we were if they saw us somewhere else, they were unused to seeing us with legs, rather than from waist up behind a counter, we used to joke about whether they thought we ran along on casters or something!

Stringcat said:

I do tend to recognise people I know. That is, I know I know them! But I have such a hard time putting names to faces

This bares a closer similarity to demential than anomia from how you describe it.  With your age and the fact you recognise the people but cannot pull the name corrolated to the face from memory then it is worth getting it checked.

I would recommend speaking to your GP and ask for a consult with a specialist to get to the root of whatever it is (hopefully it isn't anything bad) so you can then understand it better and research options to work with it.

As a short term fix for the likes of school, why not get them to wear a name badge when around you - you do the same to normalise it and it should save the issue of not being able to recall their name.

I'm terrible at remembering names mostly but I find I need to have some connection with the person to be able to want to remember their name. My job has brought me face to face with tens of thousands of people over the years and I just lost interest in trying to remember their names - only the ones meaningful to me were "saved" as I lacked the capacity to do more than that.

I also will make up a funny little phrase for more complicated names (eg foreign ones) to help me remember them.