For every traditional culture that I'm aware of, names have always held magical power.

I can't see that being any different for traditional alien cultures, unless said aliens are different enough from humans such as to be completely incomprehensible to us.

(thinking further . . .)

Actually, a completely non-magical/totally rationalistic culture would *also* probably assign power to names and naming. After all, to observe a thing is to (at least mentally) name it and the simple act of observation changes that which is observed, at least on the quantum level.