There's a high probability that he doesn't really know his name. The problem is that we use our pet's names too often and in too many different contexts. As you describe in your question, we usually call our pets by their name with a lot of hidden meanings. We should try to avoid doing that. Especially in case where we want to stop them. If every time you stop him from doing something you call his name, there will be a negative association: "when I hear "Sterling" I have to stop doing funny things, that's very upsetting" (OK, that's a bit anthropomorphic...).

The goal when you call his name should be to have him look at you, even in the presence of distractions. 

If you want to teach Sterling to respond to his name here's how I suggest to proceed. The concepts that are used here are ***operant conditioning***, ***positive reinforcement*** and ***reward markers***. ***Operant conditioning*** means that you will condition the cat to respond to the signal (his name) with a behaviour that he learned (looking at you). You do that with a ***positive reinforcement***: you reward him once he looked at you. He will then choose to offer the behaviour to get rewarded. Note that this is different from luring him to do the behaviour. You reward (positive reinforcement) once the behaviour occurred. The use of a ***marker*** means that you will "mark" the moment in time when you decide to reward. This greatly helps the cat to understand what he is rewarded for.

If you want to play this game, you could follow this recipe:

 - Choose a moment when you expect your cat to be interested and receptive, that could be when you feed him
 - Take some small treats (a fraction of his daily food or tiny bits of tuna for example), put your cat on a table or sit on the floor
 - The cat will probably be intrigued. As soon as he looks at you, say "yes", wait 2 seconds and give him a treat (*).
 - Don't call his name yet, just reward when he choose to look at you. You should notice that the frequency increases.
 - Keep doing that for a few days (**).
 - Once you're confident that he would look at you, start calling his name first. If he doesn't look at you, don't repeat his name, just attract his attention by other means.
 - When you progress, wait for longer eye contact duration before " yes and treat ".
 - Up to now you reward every time the behaviour is correctly done. Later you'll use a *variable reinforcement ratio*, this will further strengthen the behaviour.

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 - (*) A *classical conditioning* is created between the marker and the reward. To create the association there has to be a delay between the two. No need to rush for the reward. The marker serves to pinpoint the exact action you reward, then the treat waits a few seconds.
 - (**) The goal is really to reinforce the cat, not to make it more difficult to stop the reinforcement. At the same time that will strengthen the conditioning between your marker ("yes") and the reward, this can then be used to train other things.