I have a problem with remembering people's birthdays. In fact, the only birthday I can recall is my own. Despite continuously being reminded of family members' birthdays, I can only ever get it narrowed down to the month--or at best, the period of year. This is fuzzy practice at best, and not likely to win much positive favour. Jocularly (or at least I imagine so), my family would chalk it down to 'selfishness': the idea that my being 'selfish' was responsible for me only ever remembering my own birthday. To be fair to them, I have tended to drift into solipsism on occasion, which seems to hold fast in the minds of people more than my altruism.
I find it similar with names. Throughout my undergraduate years I could never really remember most of my tutors' names, and would often confuse them. For instance, I would send one tutor an e-mail meant for another. This tended to not be very useful, as the tutors themselves sometimes didn't realise you weren't in their classes to begin with, and would give you information that was, more often than not, impertinent.
Now and then the same thing happens with my home address. The habit of forgetting my own address is probably not a very good sign. I have had to use Google Maps to determine my street name from known landmarks. That being said, constantly moving house probably has a lot to do with this particular case.
However, the most irksome memory failure for me is forgetting words. Usually the same set of words. Usually very simple and common sets of words. This obviously becomes an issue when it stalls me mid-sentence in a conversation, as I battle to recall that *word*; eventually resorting in me asking my interlocutor what the word for a particular thing is. Very embarrassing.
Luckily, I have developed a few strategies for coping with memory lapses! A common one of mine is to repeat object names, concept names, proper names and so on, to myself verbally, and then place them in narratives. Repetition helps to ground names, while narrativising them contextualises them by giving their abstractedness a concrete base.
So, if you're reading this, and sometimes have problems remembering things, I'd like to hear from you! What are your strategies for coping with memory lapses?