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What do you guys do when someone calls out your name but you have nooooooooooooooooooooo clue who the heck they are.
And this doesn't apply to any semi-celebrities here. I mean to us normal folk...
Have you guys ever been approached or called out by someone who just happened to used to work with you or attend the same high school?
What do you do? Play along and say "Heyyy".. or just be straight up and tell them, "I got no clue who you are..."
I've run into people lately who have been asking me how I've been and if I'm still dating my ex and stuff like that but unfortunately, I got nothing to reply with =(!
I feel really crappy and the only way I can get a name is to ask.. "Damn, wait how do I pronounce your name again?"
I feel even more of an ass when it's a common name like Joe. Haha.. And what's worse is when I add them to FaceBook after, I see pictures of them with people I do know but this certain guy or girl... kinda just popped outta nowhere.. =O No trace in my memory of them...
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I say "who are you?"
It's honest and to-the-point.
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Challenge them to a fight to the death.
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just go, hey don't wanna be rude but i don't recognize you. imo it's just MORE awkward if you play along.
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I always remember guys' names, but I can never remember girls' names, makes no sense either because my ratio of caring who they are is like 5% to 95%..
But yeah I usually just play it off with a "oh heyy.." and ask them to put their number in my phone or something.
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Look at them funny at first, then say "I don't know who you are. What's your name, maybe that might ring a bell."
But then again, I'm the type of person who rarely feels guilt so this response might not work with everyone.
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I look at them in a confusing manner, until they realize themselves that I don't actually recognize them. But I like Bibdy's idea too...
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Netherlands45349 Posts
Say hey to them(using an akward , questioning face). Then hopefully they will reply with, ''its me, X(with the name being X).
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This happens me to quite a bit, because my memory and facial recognition skills are both pretty shitty.
If I know it's going to be a 2 second convo or a simple 'hello', I'll just go with it... But if it's anything more than that, I just have to own up and be like "I'm so sorry, but my memory is awful, what's your name again?" or "Where'd we meet again?"
As a side note, most girls generally respond positively to you not remembering them, because that's just how they are, so you're less likely to be looked at like an ass if it's a female. I don't want to stereotype too much but... Girls generally will put it on themselves as being 'forgettable' rather than put it on you for being forgetful. While this isn't exactly good, it gets the focus off of you, and that seems to be what you're looking for.
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Pronouns... LOTS of pronouns...
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Happens all the time to me. As an exchange student in Japan, (being 6ft 2, and ginger) I stand out like a proverbial sore thumb. So lots of people know me and my name, but trying to remember everyone elses names is like aaaaahh >< It's like a running gag over here with exchange students.
someone will come over to you, look at you, say 覚えてる？ Oboete-iru (remember me? roughly) and you stand there totally lost and all that comes to mind is white noise...
It's an almost daily thing. All I do is apologise, say I suck with names and they seem more than happy to tell you again. Ofc if you can hold a conversation and never mention names it's all good, you can always hope someone else will chip in and say their name 
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"introduce" them to someone else
Hey, (to person you cant remember) this is John!
just conveniently forget to finish the introductions until they hav eto do it themselves
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On May 05 2011 09:13 Bibdy wrote:
Challenge them to a fight to the death.
I think we have the best proper response to said situation!
As such, as there is clearly no longer a need for my response, I guess for the sake of not being a "+1!"er, I will. I have two plans for these occasions:
A. "I'm sorry, but I totally forgot your name." Often is accompanied by some fashion of facial expressions, however, with me... I tend to not be too good at facial expressions and end up giving them either a death-stare, or an entirely blank stare. Oops!
B. Never use their name once and totally dodge having to use it. Pronouns are seriously your hero in this situation. The key to not getting boned by this strategy is to either use plan A as a supplement when you get cornered, or to make the conversation really fast.
ezpz!
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To the OP:
Are you asking about what to do when you don't know their name? Or simply just don't recognize them at all? I've never had a situation where I was COMPLETELY unaware that I had met somebody...usually I will recognize that I'd met them but I don't remember them.
What I normally do:
- If I don't know their name -> "Hey dude I forgot your name, what is it?"
- If I straight-up can't remember where I met them/how I am aware of them -> "hey we've met before haven't we? Where was it/what's your name.."
Rarely do I get people coming up to me just randomly starting a convo, usually if I recognize somebody I'll be the instigator.
I just realized a lot of this may be due to facebook. People having 500 or w.e friends isn't uncommon, yet humans can really only keep track of about 150 people in their social network (learned this from psych classes), so perhaps these people coming up to you are facebook friends and you just can't keep track of them. I don't have facebook so I can't say I've had the same thing happen to me.
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"Hey...umm.... sorry I'm terrible with names ... what was your name again?"
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EPT
