For me, names and images are just tools or go-betweens to be used for making contact with specific abstract ideas/archetypes/"AM's" of the universe. (Whether microcosmic or macrocosmic.) It appears to be the intent with which I use a name that really matters most. My reasoning for 'why' this seems to work this way, is that all things are interconnected underneath it all. Therefore, I can legitimately call upon any force I imagine and name it anything I want and potentially receive a macrocosmic response if my personal energy fields and intent are in harmony with the force/intelligence I seek to make contact with.
I don't believe that everything I make contact with is merely in my own head, by the way, although technically, if we're all interconnected then Everything is in Everyone's 'head' so to speak, and we're all figments in the imagination of 'god' or divinity or the collective unconscious. (By whatever names you wish to refer to that aspect of shared 'reality' however it may be known to you).
There is something I do take into consideration though. By making frequent or habitual use of a name or image for the purpose of invoking a specific entity/force/intelligence, people (or a culture/population) can build up over time a well-lubricated astral pathway to reach that particular force/intelligence via that name or image. I have noticed this effect through my own experiments. (Which is why I often like to make use of conventional names/images for general work when possible, since it's easier than carving out a brand new astral road just to reach an archetype or force of a particular nature).
Something to think about:
If a later culture has transformed or corrupted the nature of an archetype or deity name (however it might exist in the collective consciousness of humanity), then I suppose it could be possible to accidentally tap into the corrupted egregore/thought-form rather than its original form. If the corrupt/altered form was used more often than the positive original one, then you might be more likely to tap into that instead of the original.
Regarding [another forum member's] doll experience where he assigned a name to a malevolent doll/entity in order to gain control over it:
I was just thinking that maybe what caused the change in the doll's nature was that Hengruh associated a different aspect/force to it from the collective consciousness (or the 'All') which helped to balance it out and effectively change the nature of the entity/force dwelling in the doll.