Speaking as someone who is partially deaf, I'll be polite and just say I disagree with you.
Me thinks the "deaf kid" reference wasn't very nice.
There is absolutely no reason to name a cat. They don't come to you when you call them, so why bother.
Naming a cat makes about as much sense as naming a house plant ... a gold fish ... or a [redacted].
At the end of the day, you have to throw something at them to get their attention.
I've named goldfish.
It's not for calling them, it's for identifying them. It helps avoid confusion.
"Hey, the goldfish is pregnant."
"Which one?"
"The white one."
"Oh, the one with a long tail?"
"No the white one with the short tail."
"With the orange spot on the head?"
"No, that one lost the spot last year. It's the one of the other ones..."
But now I have somewhere around two dozen goldfish in the pond and no 8 year old girl to help name them.
Are you so PC with your goldfish that you can't just say, "the fat one!"?
I've named goldfish.
It's not for calling them, it's for identifying them. It helps avoid confusion.
"Hey, the goldfish is pregnant."
"Which one?"
"Helen"
"Which one is Helen?"
"The white one."
"Oh, the one with a long tail?"
"No the white one with the short tail."
"With the orange spot on the head?"
"No, that one lost the spot last year. It's the one of the other ones..."
But now I have somewhere around two dozen goldfish in the pond and no 8 year old girl to help name them.
It seems all that does is add an extra layer to the conversation.
Magee, fluffball, husky, starch, munchkin, runt, Simon, Melanie, no tail, mommy kitty, tiger, marmalade, tangerine, Blackie.
All have served me well.
Very few of my pets have ever really kept their original names. I always come up with some other nickname for them that sticks. Our current cat's "real" name is Misty, because she's a calico/tabby mix and her markings aren't sharply defined (they're "misty"). Because she would seem to magically "appear" in places (for example I could walk from one room, where she was laying on the couch, into another room and find her laying in there, looking not like she just gotten there, but as if she had been relaxing there for awhile), I started calling her "Mystical".
Then, she jumped overboard from our boat at night down on Lake Monroe and was lost for 9 days before being found in the woods by a little girl who took her to a vet in Ellettsville. (She was chipped.) When we got her home, she looked like she had swallowed a basketball and gained a lot of weight. After that, I started calling her Chunky Butt. Chunky Butt has now morphed into "Chunkadoodle" or just "Chunkadoo".
We had a kitten show up at our house one day and at first (s)he took to my wife. (S)he is grey and white with white markings on his/her face. When she was so young, his/her "lips" made him/her look like (s)he had ruby red lips, my wife thought. So, the cat's name became Ruby.
A couple of months or so go by and one day, (s)he jumps from my chair to the sofa and there were a couple of surprises now visible. I told my wife, her cat is now obviously a he and not a she. We turned the b around and he became Rudy and has been ever since.
We had a kitten show up at our house one day and at first (s)he took to my wife. (S)he is grey and white with white markings on his/her face. When she was so young, his/her "lips" made him/her look like (s)he had ruby red lips, my wife thought. So, the cat's name became Ruby.
A couple of months or so go by and one day, (s)he jumps from my chair to the sofa and there were a couple of surprises now visible. I told my wife, her cat is now obviously a he and not a she. We turned the b around and he became Rudy and has been ever since.
LOL.
I had a cat named Snots. He had a mark on his nose that looked like he had a booger.
And One of the cats at the shelter last nite was named Sam. Formerly Samantha. Sent her in to the vet to be Spayed and they found testicles. So she came back neutered. He had a condition that caused both testicles to not drop so they were not externally visible.
Ha! Surprise!