215,950 profiles ranked

← Fame through time1940-1949

The 1940s

Whose names filled the books of the 1940s - anyone at all, however long dead - counted as mentions per million words printed, so a period that simply published more does not inflate anyone.

Talked about then

Whose names appeared most in Italian books during the 1940s, whenever they lived.

  1. 1Giotto1267-1337 · 14th century · Italy · Artists5.0
  2. 2Dante Alighieri1265-1321 · 14th century · Writers3.3
  3. 3Leonardo da Vinci1452-1519 · 15th century · Italy · Artists3.1
  4. 4Benedetto Croce1866-1952 · 20th century · Italy · Academics3.0
  5. 5Caravaggio1571-1610 · 17th century · Italy · Artists2.8
  6. 6Donato Bramante1444-1514 · 15th century · Italy · Architects2.8
  7. 7Donatello1386-1466 · 15th century · Artists2.7
  8. 8Antonio da Correggio1489-1534 · 16th century · Italy · Artists2.6
  9. 9Alessandro Manzoni1785-1873 · 19th century · Italy · Writers2.5
  10. 10Giuseppe Mazzini1805-1872 · 19th century · Italy · Activists2.4
  11. 11Pietro Perugino1448-1523 · 15th century · Italy · Artists2.3
  12. 12Masaccio1401-1428 · 15th century · Italy · Artists2.0
  13. 13Ugo Foscolo1778-1827 · 19th century · Writers1.9
  14. 14Tintoretto1519-1594 · 16th century · Italy · Artists1.9
  15. 15Filippo Turati1857-1932 · 19th century · Italy · Politicians1.7
  16. 16Giacomo Leopardi1798-1837 · 19th century · Italy · Writers1.7
  17. 17Lorenzo de' Medici1449-1492 · 15th century · Politicians1.6
  18. 18Benito Mussolini1883-1945 · 20th century · Italy · Politicians1.6
  19. 19Giosuè Carducci1835-1907 · 19th century · Italy · Writers1.6
  20. 20Francis of Assisi1182-1226 · 13th century · Italy · Writers1.5
  21. 21Bernardino of Siena1380-1444 · 15th century · Italy · Academics1.5
  22. 22Giordano Bruno1548-1600 · 16th century · Italy · Academics1.5
  23. 23Vittorio Alfieri1749-1803 · 18th century · Italy · Historical Figures1.5
  24. 24Giuseppe Verdi1813-1901 · 19th century · Italy · Musicians1.4
  25. 25Torquato Tasso1544-1595 · 16th century · Italy · Writers1.4
Show 75 more

Lived then

The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 1940s, ranked where coverage and readership agree.

  1. 1Ronald Reagan1911-2004 · United States · Politicians9 decades
  2. 2Richard Nixon1913-1994 · United States · Politicians8 decades
  3. 3Frida Kahlo1907-1954 · Mexico · Artists8 decades
  4. 4Lyndon B. Johnson1908-1973 · United States · Politicians8 decades
  5. 5Alan Turing1912-1954 · United Kingdom · Academics4 decades
  6. 6Gerald Ford1913-2006 · United States · Politicians6 decades
  7. 7Anne Frank1929-1945 · Germany · Writers7 decades
  8. 8Mother Teresa1910-1997 · Albania · Musicians9 decades
  9. 9Leonid Brezhnev1906-1982 · Russia · Politicians7 decades
  10. 10John Wayne1907-1979 · United States · Actors9 decades
  11. 11Albert Camus1913-1960 · France · Academics8 decades
  12. 12Pope John Paul I1912-1978 · Italy · Religious Figures2 decades
  13. 13Katharine Hepburn1907-2003 · United States · Actors9 decades
  14. 14Rosa Parks1913-2005 · United States · Activists6 decades
  15. 15Ayn Rand1905-1982 · United States · Writers3 decades
  16. 16James Stewart1908-1997 · United States · Actorsnot measured-
  17. 17Adolf Eichmann1906-1962 · Austria · Politicians8 decades
  18. 18Hedy Lamarr1914-2000 · Austria · Actors3 decades
  19. 19Bette Davis1908-1989 · United States · Actors9 decades
  20. 20Wernher von Braun1912-1977 · United States · Scientists7 decades
  21. 21Hannah Arendt1906-1975 · United States · Academics8 decades
  22. 22Jean-Paul Sartre1905-1980 · France · Academics9 decades
  23. 23Ian Fleming1908-1964 · United Kingdom · Writers7 decades
  24. 24Vivien Leigh1913-1967 · United Kingdom · Actors8 decades
  25. 25Akira Kurosawa1910-1998 · Japan · Directors6 decades
Show 75 more

How to read these rankings

  • Attention, not reputation. A place on these lists reflects the attention a person still draws in the public record. It is not a judgement on the life.
  • Fame in print. The curves show how often a name appeared in the books of each decade from 1800 to 2019, drawn from the Google Books Ngram corpus.
  • Gaps are left as gaps. Where the record is too thin to be fair, we would rather show nothing than guess.