Let me call you sweetheart....

   I have a horrible memory for names.  I remember faces but the names escape me.  No, it's not because I am getting older...More experienced.  I have always had this problem. 
   Why do you think I call everyone darling.  After all I'm not a Gabor sister.

Eva Gabor

                                   Oops, I just dated myself didn't I.


   This can get real embarrassing, like when you are trying to introduce someone.  I have done it so often that now it is expected of me.  I just brush it off with something like, okay I would like to introduce you  but you know I am horrible with names so just introduce yourselves.   Hey it worked for Dory in
Finding Nemo.
   When I taught dance, I had a little trick I did.  I would set the student's chart on a table by the floor and then dance them over to it to read the name.  I just pretended to see what step I needed to teach them next.  I knew that chart forward and backwards, literally.  I thought I was pretty slick until one Valentine's Day .....
   All my students got together and gave me a card.  It had Donald and Daisy Duck on it, and said ...Let me call you sweetheart.....Because I can't remember your name.
   I laughed and said... BUSTED.    They knew about it all the time.   Hey, I always said I got the smart people.
   Sometimes it helps to have accomplices.  If one of us couldn't remember a name, another one would go up to the person and introduce ourselves.  When we had the name we would walk by the other and tell them the name in passing.  Then they could go up to the person and pretend they knew the name the whole time.  That one worked like a charm.
   So if you forget names like I do, don't get upset about it.  Use one of the above tricks or make up a new one.  You could even try telling the truth ... I remember your face but I'm sorry your name escapes me. 
   Well, I hope I helped you out a little, Darling.