I think the making up of names is an American cultural thing. There's (prepare for sweeping generalization) less emphasis on tradition and more on creativity. Personally, I think it's all good.

I've known palefaces with created names. Sometimes they grew up in a predominantly African American community and the culture, if perhaps not the history, was every bit theirs. So you wind up with (fictional names) a Shalaylah Schoenberg. Or little white children were born during the 70's to artistical parents and were named Sunshower Periwinkle Anderson or Dweezil (oops - not fictional).

I think some of this creation of names may have been inspired by American Indian/Native American naming conventions, or at least what some people believed those conventions to be.

Not in my case though - my parents just came up with my name. It's not short for anything or spelled funny. My parents were white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant, working class, and they invented my name...in the 50s!