"I never remember a name, but I always forget a face"

(or, "I never remember a tune, but I always forget the lyrics")

and like Steve says about his mom, I knew a woman once who had 6 kids. She seemed to have a little roulette wheel in her head with their names on it...so when she needed to yell at a kid, she'd just jam an imaginary finger into that wheel and start with whatever name she hit, and then work thru them till she got to the right one! Sometimes it was #1,,,sometimes it took all 6.

I spent years working as a grocery clerk and then teaching freshmen in college, so I had literally thousands of people who knew ME, but whom I seldom recognized. I suspect I quit trying because it was so hopeless, and now it often takes me several meetings to attach a label to people I meet.