Do cats actually recognize their own name?

Yes, according to a 2019 study published in Scientific Reports, which found that cats could distinguish their own name from other words, and even from other cats’ names, spoken by both their owner and a stranger. Recognizing the sound is different from choosing to respond to it, though, which is the part that trips owners up: a cat can register that a sound means her without treating it as a command the way a trained dog might. That gap between recognition and response is a normal feature of the species, not a sign your cat is ignoring you out of spite.