Tom made sure to remember their name.
Does this remembrance have any bearing to the past?
Yes, one time I forgot the name of a person that was with me right in front of them.
People forget all the time, it's a human process. You are doing a great effort in trying to remember though, that is very polite. Not putting the effort into it will make it seem like you don't care about the other people.
I will never forget their name now.
That's good. It can embarassing to forget but at least you learned from it.