[jimeh]

Personally I have to visualize the person's name in my mind written out in plain text, then I remember that visual image of their name and associate it with an image of their face.

This isn't a technique I read about somewhere, it's just what my brain has been doing at least since I was 7 and learned how to read and write.

Typically when I try to remember someone's name, I'll see the first letter of their name in my mind and it's enough for me to recall and say/write their name. Other times if I'm having difficulty remembering their name, given some time (5-60 seconds typically) I can generally recall their name by reading the image of their written name I originally memorized. Often this reading is more of a hint towards a the concept of a common name I know of (like Alex, John, Maria, etc) meaning I don't need to recall and read it letter by letter. While if it's a more uncommon or obscure name (like Agnomemnonas, or Urania) I generally have to recall and read it out letter by letter.

Personally I think it ties into the fact that I memorize everything in a visual and three dimensional way.

I tend to have conversations about how people remember names, specially with new people I meet, and as far as I recall, I've only met one person who memorizes names in written form in their head. However a lot of people I've met tend to not remember people's names till they see them written on paper/screen, so they'll try to write people's names down at some point if they don't get a business card with the person in question's name written on it.