Most people move through a day being processed rather than noticed. A name is the shortest way to signal that you registered someone as a particular individual, not as the role they were performing when you met. The effort of remembering is what makes it mean anything, since a free gesture carries no information.

Learn one name this week that you have been getting away with not knowing. Ask plainly, admit you should know it already, then use it out loud a few times so it sticks. The response will likely be out of proportion to the effort.