Man I've reached the point where I believe just about anything of unexplained or mythical origin, whether it be a name, nickname, custom, etc. that is either very common with AA's or at least is common in the south is of African origin, its just a matter of connecting the dots.
There's definitely a possibility of a connection. I say that cause I have a similar occurrence in my fam, I know it's not necessarily common but I am curious how many names managed to survive into the 20th century.
I would love for a researcher to do a paper on African names that survived, but names like Fatima, Malik and Lamin certainly survived. Other names that seem like they also survived are Aisha, Kadijha (and numerous other versions of the name), Kesha and Fili (angelicized as Phyllis).