“A person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”

Why it was said

Dale Carnegie states this as a principle in Part Two of How to Win Friends and Influence People, the section on ways to make people like you. He illustrates it with stories of people who won loyalty and goodwill by taking the trouble to remember and use names.

What it actually means

A name is the one word that is entirely about the listener. Using it signals that you noticed them as a particular person rather than as a role, a customer or a face in the room. Forgetting it, or getting it wrong, signals the opposite, however warm the rest of the conversation is. Carnegie's point is not that names are a trick, but that remembering one takes a small, deliberate effort, and people can tell when you have made it. That is why it works: the name itself matters less than what the effort of remembering it says about how much attention you were paying.

How to use it

1. 1When you are introduced to someone, repeat their name once in your reply and once more before you part.
2. 2After a meeting, write down the names of the new people and one detail about each before you close the notebook.
3. 3If you have forgotten a name, ask again early rather than avoiding it for months.