That's a good tip about making the motions to write the person's name on the palm of your hand. One thing I noticed not that long ago was that if I heard someone's name, e.g. if they spoke it to me, I had little chance of remembering, but if I saw the name written down, e.g. I saw it on a name tag, I actually had a much better chance of remembering. I assumed that is because my memory was more visual. But maybe it is simply because of more senses being involved.