If NaCl splits into ions in water, then why does it still have the property of NaCl?

When you taste salt, you're not pushing crystallineNaClNaClinto your taste buds. It dissolves in your saliva and dissociates. When one tastes salt, the saltiness taste receptors respond specifically to the sodium cation. That type of taste receptor is a cation channel.
There seem to be at least two types of receptors that respond to saltiness. One responds almost specifically to sodium at low concentrations, but at higher concentrations, the other type responds to many cations.