Names in "Song of Solomon"

page 17
[Macon Dead] walked there now . . . thinking of names. Surely, he thought, he and his sister had some ancestor, some lithe young man with onyx skin and legs as straight as cane stalks, who had a name that was real. A name given to him at birth with love and seriousness. A name that was not a joke, nor a disguise, nor a brand name . . . His own parents, in some mood of pervesness or resignation, had agreed to abide by a naming done to them by somebody who couldn't have cared less.

Questions:
1) Why doesn't Macon change his family name if he is so bothered by it? Isn't he perpetuating the "resignation" by accepting the name of Macon Dead?

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