They establish perceivable identities in the flux of changing perspectives. Without names we would lose all orientation in society, space, and time. WE would be cast adrift in the ocean of the world-process. Names establish stable points of referrence around which we can accumulate narrative lnowledge and upon which we can pass judgements. The proper names of persons and groups are our trans-temporal addresses in language and society which make meaningful speech to and about persons possible.
Names are the most immortal parts of language.
There are as many stories as there are people telling them, although there is also much consensus. We find a myriad of written biographies and there may be an autobiography in the paradigm case of famous people. There is no ultimately priviledged point of view here for us. All circulating stories stand in a dialectical relationship with each other, demanding continual revisioning. These things carry the spiritual meaning-traces of the person.