Top Names of 1978 — Rankings & Counts

The most popular names recorded in 1978 were Rebecca for girls and Michael for boys. Full top-50 lists below, from official NSW & VIC BDM data.

Girls

#	Name	Babies
1	Rebecca	1,362
2	Michelle	1,122
3	Melissa	1,020
4	Nicole	936
5	Amanda	907
6	Lisa	842
7	Kylie	829
8	Sarah	815
9	Belinda	792
10	Kelly	735
11	Natalie	580
12	Jennifer	550
13	Kristy	542
14	Angela	540
15	Emma	525
16	Renee	494
17	Melanie	476
18	Karen	448
19	Elizabeth	430
20	Danielle	413
21	Rachel	409
22	Samantha	400
23	Amy	392
24	Joanne	390
25	Katrina	380
26	Jodie	374
27	Alison	372
28	Kate	369
29	Tanya	361
30	Fiona	339
31	Julie	337
32	Kim	336
33	Katherine	330
34	Vanessa	327
35	Megan	322
36	Tracey	301
37	Catherine	290
38	Natasha	274
39	Leanne	273
40	Kathryn	272
41	Christine	269
42	Kellie	264
43	Anna	262
44	Sharon	259
45	Linda	258
46	Susan	254
47	Sally	239
48	Louise	234
49	Stacey	233
50	Donna	231

Boys

#	Name	Babies
1	Michael	1,964
2	Matthew	1,809
3	David	1,758
4	Daniel	1,626
5	Andrew	1,559
6	Benjamin	1,423
7	Christopher	1,315
8	Mark	1,265
9	Adam	1,125
10	Peter	1,024
11	Paul	1,018
12	Jason	1,015
13	Scott	1,000
14	Nathan	916
15	Robert	861
16	Steven	834
17	John	807
18	James	794
19	Shane	768
20	Luke	767
21	Anthony	738
22	Timothy	712
23	Craig	684
24	Bradley	662
25	Stephen	594
26	Aaron	565
27	Brett	545
28	Troy	479
29	Simon	435
30	Gregory	433
31	Justin	405
32	Nicholas	403
33	Joshua	341
34	Adrian	312
35	Richard	311
36	Darren	307
37	Mathew	305
38	Brendan	298
39	Ryan	298
40	Damien	296
41	Shaun	289
42	Jamie	283
43	Dean	282
44	Trent	280
45	Cameron	278
46	William	277
47	Grant	275
48	Wayne	274
49	Ian	270
50	Joseph	270