ok....but what if your category (or sub-category) name and the product name are identical?
You say you have 3 categories...
cat1
cat2
cat3
let's say you have 8 products per category...
make 8 subcats per cat (assign only 1 product per subcat) and then use the mod that takes you to the product if its the only product in a cat or subcat.
I am doing exactly this in my "makeup and brush kits" category, although there are only 3 products (subcats) in this category...
YMMV.
Good luck.