Vowels are associated with affective valence, with /i/ (as in tree) typically associated with positive valence and /o/ (as in the German word Tor [gate]) with negative valence. Although such iconic vowel–valence associations have been observed across languages and methodological approaches, it remains unclear to what extent they operate automatically and whether such automaticity could ease processing in ways that benefit memory encoding and subsequent recall. In three preregistered experiments (total N = 433), we tested whether iconic vowel–valence associations would enhance memory performance, which would suggest an automatic rather than explicit processing route. Specifically, we examined whether congruent pseudoname–face pairings (i.e., /i/-names with positive faces; /o/-names with negative faces) would be recalled more accurately than incongruent pairings. Participants were instructed to memorize both types of pairings and, after a brief retention interval, were asked to match each previously seen face to its corresponding pseudoname. None of the experiments showed an effect of vowel–valence congruency on recall performance. Pooled analyses consistently showed no recall advantage for congruent pairings, suggesting that iconic vowel–valence associations do not substantially influence memory performance.