Mother in law forgetting family members’ names, misnaming them. Is this a natural part of progression?

Forgetting and mixing up names is very much a natural progression of dementia. I remember my grandmother in later stages of dementia assuming I was her daughter if I was wearing a skirt but I was her son of I wore pants. Instead of correct names for days of the week she might say, "Today is yellow.". In its way, it was poetic. I always conversed with her in whatever was her reality at the moment and to this day am left with a memory of a certain beauty in "flexible perceptions." Relax your expectations that your LO will stay within the old reality. Keep her safe and look for the poetry.

On the other hand,my grandmother, who had no other signs of cognitive impairment, used to just run through the list of her children's and grandchildren's names until she hit the right one.

Yet she was able to travel abroad on her own, handle her finances, serve on committees, etc. Memory is a mysterious thing...

Based on my personal experience, now is the time to begin preparations for preparing to qualifying for medicaid if it will be needed in the future. Get ahead of the 5 year look-back. So sorry that anyone has to help manage this disease. It can be very difficult at times.

It's a natural progression of dementia & cognitive decline, unfortunately. My mother introduces me as her mother, and has been doing so for a few years now. She also introduces my husband as her husband. She was diagnosed in 2016 with unspecified dementia. Nowadays, she cannot remember names AT ALL; it's the worst of her memory deficiencies, it seems to me. That and what day of the week it is.

Terrible disease, this dementia & cognitive decline, isn't it? :(

Ludmila, you stated she is in independent living. If she is becoming this mixed up I'm hoping someone has been checking on her at her apartment to see if there's signs of decline there, like food molding in fridge, paperwork in disarray, not tidy, etc. We discovered my MIL's short-term memory was very bad when we went to her home and opened the fridge and there was all the food we were providing her, rotting. She was forgetting to eat, and thinking she had eaten. Even when I called her on the phone and asked her to tell me specifically what she ate, she'd give me an answer. But later that day I'd go visit and look in her fridge, garbage and sink -- no signs of eating anything. So, hopefully someone has durable PoA for her and can make sure all her legal and medical ducks are in a row. FYI yes MC is expensive but get her into a nice, local place on private pay now (and make sure they accept Medicaid). Once she runs out of money she will have priority for a Medicaid bed. I wish you peace as you help her on this journey!

My husband does not know names of most family members or their relationship to us, I just say "that's ok" if that seems to upset him. With this disease, keeping them calm and reassuring them it and they are ok, is best. Many times he thinks it is the first time he met them. But that's ok.

It's is common to get names confused. Think about it, the family expands and it can be confusing when trying to recall. There were 5 kids in my family and it was common, even when mom was young, to start at the top and work her way down to the right kid's name! With dementia issues it is also common to use the wrong names or confuse people - the last part to go is memories from long ago. Seeing a grandson in current time may have a very familiar face to the brother she remembers as a kid. So it could be she is seeing her brother.

Finding the correct word as you age is common and more so with dementia. My mom is quite with it in regard to memory (at nearly 96) but often gets stalled looking for a word. We are a family of talkers so I try to remind the others to give her a little time to get it out and only offer suggested words when she's had a moment to think about it. Also, because she's putting her thoughts together a little slower than the others, they can overlook that she is not participating or don't allow her to interject. If you see that happening, stop the others and say - Mom is trying to tell you something.

This is a normal part of the disease progression with dementia and other forms of cognitive decline. After a while, they won't recognize anyone.

I just politely correct them by "introducing" the to the person, such as, "isn't it nice that we are having lunch with Judy today?" - or whatever applies - as I point to Judy.

Dementia brings lots of losses. My sister, 4 years older than me(DPOA), tells me she loves "working" at her Care Home. Since I completely support the job concept,
I embellish her alleged employment by bringing her little treats, new clothes...
"Pat, I cashed your paycheck." It's a win-win for both of us.

I'm noticing this with my 95 y/o mother, who is mixing up generations of people she has known her whole life. However, it might be more a matter of remembering which name goes to which person than actually forgetting who they are (they live in another state so we can't test this hypothesis).

FWIW here is a funny case in which something like this happened to someone who didn't have dementia. I knew a family in which a couple grown sons resembled each other very closely although not twins. One day, the mother noticed one of them standing nearby, and said "John..or Hank... or whoever you are, will you please get me the [whatever the object was]?" We all had a good chuckle.