Forgetting names, confusing faces

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My husband, who is as NT as a normal male can be, is terrible with faces and names. Even worse, today I showed him a picture of a fluffy white cat and he asked me 'Why, is that the white doggie you've been talking about?' 'Good he got the colour right!

I , on the contrary, almost never forget names and faces. I can still recognise my schoolmates I haven't seen for 20 years when I meet them in the street and I usually get their names right. It's really awkward when a person who had sat next to me throughout primary school can't place me, let alone remember my name.

I have some problems with faces, I sometimes can recognise a person from behind by the way they move better than by looking at their face. I can't remember names very well either, it's not that I don't remember the person as I can remember lots of personal details we talked about, just not their names.

Like others have mentioned earlier, I have a a horrible problem remember names, and, yes, it is getting even worse as I get older. I can remember some faces, but I am not very good at gauging age. I can only accurately guess age on the extremes, either really old or really young, but not anything when people are adults. It can be very disconcerting. "Guess my age...um...I don't know, 35. OMG No! I am 22."

Also, this semester I am teaching two college courses, one of which has 37 students. No matter how many time the student tell me their names, I can't remember them. So I just started giving them all nicknames that I can remember and they can stand. Seems to work for some funny reason.

This is really random, but I might as well close on that note: when I was younger, and really even to this day, the way I remember people is by the car they drive.

-Johnathan

I remember about 10 peoples names, mostly family. The rest I have to run through a list of common names in my head until I find one that fits.
My sister got married and as my father is dead I had to give the bride away and also made a speech infront of about 100 quests. My speech was 2 lines long and I couldn't remember my sisters husbands name so in my embarrasement I just sat down again. A guest stood up and said the toast to my sister and er er peter john steven .......Steven (only took 3 seconds that time).

Forgetting names seem to run in my family. My maternal grandmother, Maama (as we called her), would look right at us think for a minute and still call us all of her grandchildren’s names before she eventually got it right. It didn’t matter the gender of the name. My mother does the same thing. We joked when I was younger calling it ‘the Maama disease’ and how it was genetic. It wasn’t until it started happening to me that I started getting worried. I can get through the day not having to say someone’s name. I mean how often do you really have to call out to someone… and when I do “Hey!” is perfectly normal. My best friend pointed out to me when I was twenty-three that I called all my nieces and nephews ‘the kid’ or ‘the baby’. It was natural to me. It was strange and funny to her. Just the other day one of the owners of the company I work for came into work on his day off. I wanted to introduce him to the new girl I was training and though I’ve known him for the last two yrs and have spoke to him and even write his name on vender checks I couldn’t remember it. I know I must have been staring at him strangely but I wasn’t about to ask him his name. So, I asked him if he had met Carrie. Expecting him to say no and introduce himself. Of course he didn’t he just said “no” and “hi” It was almost an hour before his name popped into my head. Its kind of scary sometimes, being undiagnosed and having so many characteristics and symptoms that can be associated with many different disabilities and illnesses. I manage well enough, I guess.

I am terrible with names, but I always just thought that was genetic LOL.

However, remembering faces is very hard for me. At 10 I closed my eyes and tried to think about what I looked like - and I couldn't even picture my own face! After that I made an effort to look in the mirror every day, sometimes making faces so I could see what others saw when they interacted with me.

The problems with face recognition are the worst at the movies. I have trouble remember who is playing who (e.g. is Jennifer Garner the girlfriend, or the mistress? Is vin Diesel the hero or the bad guy? As an adult, I find going to films stressful because unless I know the plot ahead of time, I can rarely follow what's going on!

I'm terrible at names! I met a bunch of new people recently and trying to recall their names in conversation was a nightmare. and trying to mention them in conversations with other people was even worse. I do it with people I've known for ages too, where I can't recall their name when I need to and end up having to avoid saying what I wanted to say, because I don't want people to know I forgot the name of someone that I shouldn't have problems remembering.
I'm bad at celebrity/actors names too.

I like to remember the names and birthdays of all my colleagues and clients at work. I sometimes forget who they are when they're in front of me, though

This is more true with the learners, but people who work at different centres...I forget what they look like at the monthly meeting, though I know their names and where they work/job role.

Oh wow... I'm so glad I'm not the only one with this. It really makes ppl question my intelligence and can be annoying. I can describe the person in great detail but I just can't retrieve their name from my memory. I think the most embarrassing incident was when I was talking about my best friend and I ended up saying, "You know, that guy I hang out with all the time"

I don't have face-blindness I think. If I had it, it would be an extremely weak form of face-blindness, I can recognize faces most of the time and it rarely happens I don't recognize someone - but it happens.
On a holiday I had troubles finding my parents on a table in the dining room of the hotel though, even though I check the direction they went to! They finally called me and only then I realized that the faces I was looking at were my parents. I had to laugh and later noticed people were staring at me for doing so without any obvious reason.
Sometimes it happens that my father or some other relative just stops and checks something, I stop too but don't look after them, when another person in similar clothing passes me I instinctively start following the person for about 3 or 4 steps until I realize "wait, that's not him/her!", this is embarassing, but it is rather because I don't look into the faces a lot or at all in such situations and just mistake them because of similar clothing.

Then again, I have had problems with names.
I only remember two examples from my life where I mixed up people though.
One was from two classmates, both females, both names starting with N and having the exact same lenght, both looked similar to me and I couldn't get right who was who so I never even exchanged words with them nor did I tried to mention the name.
The other one was with two males who were and still are altar servants in the local church. They are brothers. I am an altar servant myself and up to this day I sometimes have to think actively not to mention the wrong name, both names start with M and are almost of the same lenght... Back then I mixed them up and apologized for that, they showed sympathy though and were like "no harm done!".
Nowadays, I don't have that problem anymore and didn't mistake anyone (not even those brothers)... I think... but on the other hand I'm isolating myself more and more, so I don't have much contact with people to really prove that thesis.

I remember very special faces, like very pretty ones, very ugly, very bearded, etc. If it is nothing special that I can put a tag on, the face is stored in my big book of lost memory. The names is hopeless to remember and I have given up a long time ago.
Funny thing is that I always remember names and song titles when I hear a song on the radio or tv, even though it has been years since I heard it. My old classmates names however, is long lost.

I'm a bit like you on this matter, ngonz. So I know how it can make some situations awkward.
I've some difficulties that can be linked to prosopagnosia, and I'm also terrible at names and at remembering them. I can't determine the age of people too, except in a very general way.

I can't really form the picture of someone's face into my head. I would feel terrible if I were an eyewitness of some serious crime, because I would do really poor at helping for the facial composite of the murderer (or whatever). I can't really describe someone to another person, but that's also because I don't like to look at faces (except for my family and my friends, or some gentle people with whom it seems to be much easier) and I don't generally pay much attention to people. It's funny, because sometimes when I walk in the street with someone who makes, sometimes, comments about others, I haven't even seen the people she alludes to !
It will not surprize you, then, if I say that when I read fiction I don't visualize the characters (I don't visualize much for that matter, I'm a creature of concepts and language)...

It's quite annoying sometimes, because I don't instantly recognize people I know a bit ; I can also have a doubt (do I know him/her or not ?). But the aspect about names is more frustrating. I've been in two groups, one small, one bigger, at university this year, and I can't even attribute all the names to the first one's participants, and know only a few names for the second one's ones. I've been sitting for several lessons next to a girl in the second one, with no occasion to indirectly know what her name is, which is awkward - since conversely, those persons know my name !