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These Memes About Explaining Your Name To Strangers Are Hilariously Relatable

by Lizzy Rosenberg

Remembering people's names can be kind of tricky, and sometimes, helping others pronounce and process your own name can be even trickier. Whether your name is something relatively conventional (i.e. Matt, Emily, Rachel, or Sam) or if it's somewhat unique, finding a good way to recall names is hard, and people come up with the strangest ways to remember and understand them. That is precisely why these "What's Your Name?" memes are incredibly relatable — in all seriousness, everyone in the world has gone through something like this at least once in their lives.

Recently, you may have seen a new meme circulating through the Twitterverse, which I've unofficially dubbed the "What's Your Name?" meme. It's a scenario in which someone asks the Twitter user's name, and after they respond, the person relates the name to someone — or something — totally unexpected. They find a super odd way to remember it, whether it's with a completely random celebrity, a similar (but totally different) name, or sometimes they decide to sound it out in a — well — rather unusual manner. Tweets about the interaction have been floating around since March 23, but are really catching on now.

Either way, the tweets about this meme are incredibly funny (and extremely relatable), so make sure to check out some of the examples below — you definitely won't regret doing so.

LOL. some of these exchanges are truly wild. But between you and me, I've totally been "that person" before. I've made a point to call every Aaron or Erin I've ever met in the last few years "A-aron," and in all seriousness, I can't help it — I'll always take up the chance to quote Keegan Michael Key. Oh, and if I ever meet someone named Candy, you'd best believe I'll be serenading them with Aaron Carter songs all night long.

Anyway, even American activist and TV personality Monica Lewinsky got in on the fun. Apparently people relate her name to Monica Gellar from Friends, despite the fact she's a very well-known person (and the fact that her name is pretty easy to remember).

Yep, just like Monica from Friends, I guess.

There's a reason behind why it's so hard to remember people's names, according to a study from the University of York, and apparently, it's because remembering a face relies on recognition, which is easy, and the brain relies on recall to remember their name, which is more difficult. The human brain will only realize they're unable to remember a name after recognizing the face, and according to the study, it's less common to recall a person's name, and not their face. I guess it makes sense, but seriously — who would have known?

Whether your name is super easy to remember or if it's a little less common than most, chances are someone has forgotten your name, found the most annoying way to remember it, or has gotten it wrong so many times you don't even know what to say. Bottom line: you've gone through this before, and even though it's kind of irritating in the moment, it definitely makes for some solid meme content.