As you told, the command "Locate Referenced File" doesn't work, if the filename doen't match exactly. And the filenames should keep their new names.
"Locate Referenced File" will be able to reconnect one file at a time, if you direct Aperture to the matching file in the Loate Referenced File dialog, but it will not be able to recognise the other matching referenced files and to reconnect them all at once with the "Reconnect All" button.
It will be a lot of work to reconnect the one by one. Usually it is much easier to rename the original master files using Metadata > Batch change in Aperture than to try to do that in the Finder.