People enjoy hearing their name said out loud by others. From what I’ve heard, doing this is a useful way to get people to trust you. Of course, it won’t always work, but generally speaking, it’s supposed to have a positive effect – unless that’s all just a myth.
But I think it goes both ways. I quite like saying people’s names – or at least the names of good friends. When people have short and snappy names, it’s nice to just quickly pop them out; names like “Mike” and “Kat” are two I quite like saying. But it’s not just the single syllable wonders – it’s also the longer names too, the ones which you can really take your time articulating and slowly spilling out of your mouth – the names like “Dalfino” or “Stephanie.” Then there’s you’re middle of the road names, the ones like “Chloe” or “Liam” or “Sophie” where they’re neither short or snappy or long and unusual – just simple words, but ones which you enjoy molding your mouth around and you say them.
And in the end, you find that you mainly say their names when you’re around them, so that then means that it slowly begins to have a positive association. You hear yourself saying their name and you start to feel good, because the last time you heard it was when you with them last – which was doubtlessly a wonderful time. For me, it’s also a small sign of affection: if I’m not very close with someone, saying their name doesn’t feel quite right, I’ll only do it to get their attention – but if I do like someone, I’ll sprinkle their name into sentences like a sprinkle the salt over some chips when having dinner at Nando’s. It just makes conversation with them a little more delicious.
