The Significance of Names in Roots and Beloved

Until Mr. Heidkamp mentioned the miniseries, Roots, in class, I had forgotten that I watched the entirety of it with my family when I was little. I remembered it vaguely, mostly just that the guy from Reading Rainbow was in it. (Who else loved the Reading Rainbow?)

I couldn't reading a brief description of the plot, the pieces I remembered all fell together. 

It starts in Africa, following the story of Kunta Kinte. (His story truly is only a fraction of the entire show, it gets very complicated and heartbreaking very quickly.) He is captured and brought on a slave ship to Maryland, where he is sold into slavery and given the name "Toby." He refuses to accept his new name, not wanting to forget his tribal heritage.

Eventually, he marries and has a daughter which he names Kizzy, meaning "stay put" in his native Mandika language. Over Kizzy's lifetime, a lot (A LOT) happens, but she comes back to the plantation where she was born and finds her father's grave. She scratches out "Toby" and writes "Kunta Kinte."

I immediately connected this to Beloved, because Sethe wrote only the word "Beloved" on her daughter's grave, who comes back from the dead and goes only by the name "Beloved." I haven't yet learned what the baby's true name was, but that didn't matter because it wasn't what was written on her gravestone, so it was no longer her identity. 

There is significance to other character's names from Beloved, as well. Our names are the representation on paper of our identity, which I suppose matter most after our death.