Nomenclature

A recent thread on MeFi about baby names got me thinking.* Both of my grandmothers were born early in the last century and had typically old-fashioned names: Matilda and Genevieve. Coincidentally (?), both were commonly called boys' names, Matty and Johnny. As a child, I could hardly bear to hear my maternal grandmother and her sisters' names. They sounded like a coven of particularly ugly witches. What a difference a century makes. What are the chances today of coming across a group of little girls named Matilda, Beatrice and Gladys?

* I also learned a new word. Onomastics, the study of naming.