Why would that happen? I'm confused as to why you would stop petting your cat and giving them treats (assuming that this is normal for you) just because you changed its name.

I'm obviously not talking about no longer petting your cat. The whole topic of discussion is "should a cat called Connor suddenly no longer be called Connor". The cat would still hear the name "Connor" every day, but they suddenly no longer get the interactions they associate with the name.

Am I now being clear? The situation you described (name of cat changes, old name is no longer used) is simply different.