Watch some of the "psychics" on cable TV. Make notes. Take notice of their techniques. Most of them provide a starting place, which the Querant confirms....
I see someone with the name starting with F? F?

*looks around until someone raises a hand*
I see a father figure coming through...someone with the name starting with F?
You see where I'm going with this.
That's why I'm sceptical of people like John Edward. I always watch out for more specific information that would be very unlikely to come through. You can find the same kind of success if you give common names like 'John'. It's more than likely that someone will know a John.
I tried to demonstrate the idea of cold reading to my mother, by picking random letters and seeing if she knew of anyone in the family with a name beginning with that letter. Except for uncommon letters like X and Z, she managed to think of one for all of the letters I mentioned.