Matthew 1

Matthew starts his account by tracing the genealogy of Jesus.
If anyone is to believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah, it would have to be proved that God had kept His promises to Abraham and David.
My bible shows a reference to Genesis 22:18 as God's promise that the He would be a descendant of Abraham,

Gen 22:18
And in your Seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.

and 1 Samuel 16:1 as his promise that the Messiah would be a descendant of David.

1Sa 16:1
And Jehovah said to Samuel, How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I will send you to Jesse of Bethlehem. For I have seen a king for Me among his sons.

Those seem rather vague to me (but I'm not a scholar or anything).
Are there other references that cover this in more detail?

This is the first time I have ever read Matthew, and my first thought was
"What's with those names?".
Did something happen between the Old Testament and the New Testament that caused people to switch from naming their kids Azor and Zerah, to names like Mark and John?
Or do some people still name their kids Zerubbabel?

"Time for dinner, Zerubbabel!"

Maybe its the difference between Hebrew and Greek?
Anyway, that's just a superficial observation, not really a question.

I do have a real question though; Why does the genealogy sometimes include the wives names? Did some of these people have more than one wife?