Is it inappropriate to use a noun to introduce yourself?

[Kittykat97]

Hi, sorry if the title didn't make any sense. I'm not Deaf or HoH, but people in my life are HoH. I was wondering if it would be considered disrespectful to Deaf culture to introduce myself with a word instead of fingerspelleing. I know name signs are very important to Deaf culture, and I don't want to overstep if it's considered rude.

Example, my name is Kat. Would it be rude to introduce myself with the sign for cat?

[Lysandor]

I don't know that it would be considered rude, but it wouldn't make any sense.  You have to remember that the fact that your name sounds like CAT isn't going to make sense to a deaf person.  If they've been deaf their whole life, how will they know that your name sounds like CAT, and furthermore, now you are going to use the reference to the sound to describe yourself as a literal feline animal.

It just doesn't make sense to do it that way because it all references a hearing thing.  Now, I know many deaf people will understand what you are tyring to say because they've spent a lot of time with hearing people and have seen these kinds of mistakes before.  So I don't know that every person would have trouble understanding what you mean, but I wouldn't risk it either.