A forgotten name becomes less awkward when honesty arrives before a long performance of recognition.

Pretending to remember costs more than admitting you do not. The performance requires vagueness, avoided introductions, and a growing dread that somebody will ask you to introduce them, and the longer it runs the worse the eventual reveal becomes. Saying it in the first ten seconds is a two-second event. Almost everyone has been on both sides of this, and almost everyone prefers the short version.

Use a plain sentence early: your name has gone and you would like it again. Giving your own name at the same time takes the weight off the other person and makes it a straightforward exchange.