7 Strategies for Receiving Names in your Mediumship that are so Strange and Simple They Might Just Work

Worth a shot?

Mediums love to think that receiving names is some mythical level of connection that’s just out of reach. Or you may believe that receiving names is due to some extra blessing bestowed upon a sacred few. But the truth is far less glamorous and far more human: most mediums talk themselves out of receiving names.

Names are slippery. They vanish the moment we hear them, yet they also one of the most powerful pieces of evidence we can offer in a reading. Names land with weight. They turn a vague “I think this might be your gran” into a moment of deep recognition and absolute certainty about survival.

In this article, I’m sharing seven strategies for receiving names in your mediumship that are delightfully un‑mystical, rooted in real practice, and surprisingly effective. Some will stretch you. Some will make you wonder why on earth no one told you this sooner. But all of them will help you build the inner pathways that allow spirit to drop a name into your awareness with clarity, confidence, and ease.

1. Use people’s names more in daily conversation

You’re at great-aunt Jemima’s 352^nd birthday party (at least it feels that way), when your dear old cousin thrice removed introduces himself to you, how do you respond?

‘Hello, my name’s Cuthbert. I’m Jemima’s distant cousin on her father’s side.’

Eyes cast down, you mutter, ‘Hey, nice to meet you,’ over the bellowing vocals of Abba’s Dancing Queen.

Distracted by the sudden (and disturbing) thought that you left the oven on at home, you instantly forget this chap’s name as soon as it left his lips.

‘Heid lik’ a sieve’ as we say here in Scotland. Translation: Your brain has the retentive power of a vessel with holes in it.

If you don’t use people’s names enough in life, you’ll struggle to receive names in your mediumship. Your mediumship is made of energetic pathways that spirit communicator’s can use to get their point across to you. And these pathways are formed by the experiences of your own life. One of the best ways you can begin to receive names in your mediumship, is to train yourself to use people’s names more in life.

‘Hi Cuthbert, I’m Lauren. Nice to meet you. Are you having fun, Cuthbert? Do you like Abba?’

The simple act of prioritizing remembering and using people’s names in daily life will create the energetic pathways in your mind for the spirit world to use in your mediumship.

I especially like to do this with dogs. If I’m out walking with the kids and we pass a nice dog, I’ll ask the owner, ‘what’s his / her name?’

I don’t care about the owner’s name, of course, just the dog’s.

2. Put more names into your brain

Before the phone book made its way to the spirit world, I used to tell my students to read the phone book. Yes, really. I’m not sure what the current version of that would be, maybe, scroll through your friends list on social media?

Anyway, the point is, the more exposure you have to names, and names of different cultures and countries, the more easily names will come in your mediumship. Albert Best was one of the greats. He received names and addresses in his mediumship with stunning accuracy and consistency. And the main reason for this is because his former career was as a postman! All day, every day, he stared at names and addresses. If you want to get good at giving names, try doing the same.

Set a timer for 10 minutes, grab your phone, and just scroll through your friends list saying each name out loud as you come to it. Note whether names come more easily to you in readings after you do this.

3. Ask spirit to give you more names more clearly

Another Scottish saying for you: Shy weans dinnae git sweeties.

Translation: Shy kids don’t get treats.

If you want to receive more names in your mediumship, try actually telling spirit this and asking for help to make it so. You may feel that your mediumship is only yours, and it’s up to you alone to make names happen. Or maybe you think your mediumship will never quite be good enough and you’ve accepted it for what it is. But a truth that is easily forgotten is that mediumship is a collaboration between you and spirit. You can ask them to figure out how to get names to you. Trust that they will respond.

4. Trust the names from your own life

Last week, one of my mediumship coaching clients gave me a reading as part of her coaching. She picked up on a female friend of mine who’d passed.

She relayed lots of detailed memories, but she didn’t give me a name.

After the reading ended, I was giving feedback and I told her:

‘My friend’s name was Claire.’

Her face dropped.

‘I have only one female friend in spirit too, and her name’s also Claire. I was thinking about her the whole time I was giving you this message – why didn’t I just say her name?’

If you look up the phrase ‘kicking yourself’ in the dictionary, right next to it is a picture of a medium not giving a name that was floating about their awareness, which later turned out to be right. It’s the worst.

Spirit will often use names, relationships, hobbies, places and objects from your own life to get their message across. Again, it’s to do with the well-worn energetic pathways. If you can’t stop picturing your Gran during a reading, try offering her name to your sitter. It may be spirit’s way of trying to get you to say the name. When they come to you, trust the names from your own life.

5. When you get it, give it

If you sit on a name and refuse to give it when you get it, your ability to give names will start to shrivel up. Use it or lose it. When you get a name, even if you think it’s wrong, just say it. What’s the worst that can happen? You’ll get a ‘no’. If you edit and restrict yourself out of fear of getting it wrong, your mediumship will shrink to fit the container of your fear, instead of expanding. If you want to be the kind of medium who gets correct names and delivers them with confidence, you must choose to grow into that reality by saying the names you get, even when you feel unsure.

6. Watch other mediums giving names

This technique has no business working as well as it does. It’s not woo-woo, it’s not spiritual, and it’s so easy you can do it lying down. Binge-watch videos of really good mediums giving names. There are millions of clips on Youtube. My favourites are old clips of Gordon Higginson from the 80s and 90s giving dems in spiritualist churches. It’s so grainy and fuzzy, but he was such a fantastic medium, it’s an inspiring watch. I find, if I do this, names come more easily in the readings I do following a binge. I don’t know how it works, but it does. It’s like a little of his magic makes its way through the screen and into my mind.

7. Keep a journal of all the times you’ve given a name correctly

It’s human nature to hold on to the things that went wrong, which caused us shame or danger, and to forget the things that went well. Things that go well are not threatening so to remember them vividly would take up precious memory space. When it comes to your mediumship, what this means is your successes become miniscule to the point of forgotten, and your failures get blown out of all proportion. One thing you can do to counter-balance this tendency towards negativity, is to write down your wins. Whenever you get a correct name in a reading, write it down in a special ‘book of wins’. Look over your book of wins every once in a while to remind yourself that you can receive names, you have done it, and you will do it again. I bet there are more instances of receiving correct names in there than you remember.

Thanks for reading!

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