Why don't people have old timey names anymore?

Now I’m not talking about names like Edith or Hortense or Ulysses.

I’m talking ridiculous names, like the kind they had in the 1940’s B-movie serials. Names like “Speed” or “Flash” or “Hoot”. Essentially names that sounded like a verb.

I like to watch those old 1940’s movies. There’s a bunch on Amazon. And it’s just so silly when they actually refer to the person by their, what I’m calling, “verb” name.

I miss half the movie because I’m trying to understand, going over in my head thinking:

“did their parents actually name them that? Or is it just a ridiculous nickname that somebody gave them?”

And if it’s true, if that was actually a name someone gave them when they were born. Why did it stop? At what point in human existence did people just eventually stop naming their children that?

Or was it just a ridiculous naming convention created by writers?

I’d love to know the etymology of that particular trend.