Yes, names really matter because it identifies an individual, or the race that individual is from. In some cultures people are given nick-names that reflect their character or something that they did. So a name is an identifying mark. It can tie you to a location or culture or a family.
A quote from The Destruction Of The Black Civilisations reads:

But what happened in the process of converting the Blacks to Islam and Christianity was the supreme triumph of the white world over the black. Millions of Africans became non-Africans. ........The blacks in their own rights became non persons, members of a race of nobodies, so hopeless that self-realization as personalities, even in a subordinate status, could only be achieved by becoming Muslims or Christians. Indeed, in order to destroy completely not only their African heritage, but also their very African identity psychologically, they were forced to change their names to Arabic and Christian names. Henceforth, if these Black Emils, Johns, Muhammads, Samuels and Abdullahs happened to achieve greatness in some field, the assumption would be that it was Caucasian achievement, unless a special effort was made to identify the race of the persons in question. Blacks at home inAfrica and Blacks scattered over the world bore the names of their enslavers and oppressors, the ultimate in self-effacement that promoted a self hatred which made pride in the race difficult.
Chancellor Williams.

If you give someone a new name, it is like saying that you are now who I want you to be, forget who you were, that is unimportant. It is like wiping the slate clean in the eyes of the one who gives the name.
Many of our inventors have European names and we really have to dig deep to find out their identities. But isn't it nearly always the case that those Blacks in positions of power would not want to rock the boat by calling their children 'Shaniquah or Lashawn' etc. Because those names are different from mainstream society and they identify the individual as being of African Origin. Some of us just want to fit in and not rock the boat so to speak. But a people marginalised by society, who are on the fringes of society, those who are poor who do not have any power within the society, have rejected the 'Johns' and 'Marys' and want to reclaim a name that gives them some identity. If I hear the name Lashawn, I am immediately going to recognise it as one of my brothers . And isn't true that change always comes from people who are at the bottom rungs of the ladder. In not having a name that is European or Muslim, those people are reclaiming their identities. They are saying; this is who I am. This is what I give to myself. To reclaim something as your own means you have taken back some power, part of your identity and that you are not allowing someone else, shaped by their values and ideologies to define who you are. You are in fact, defining yourself.