215,950 profiles ranked

← Fame through time1900-1999

The 20th century

Whose names filled the books of the 20th century - 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 English books during the 20th century, whenever they lived.

  1. 1Jesus5 BC-30 · 1st century · Religious Figures30
  2. 2Aristotle384 BC-322 BC · 1st millennium BC · Academics7.1
  3. 3Plato428 BC-348 BC · 1st millennium BC · Academics7.1
  4. 4Homer900 BC-800 BC · 1st millennium BC · Writers7.1
  5. 5Augustus63 BC-14 · 1st millennium BC · Italy · Politicians4.9
  6. 6Johns Hopkins1795-1873 · 19th century · United States · Founders4.4
  7. 7Cicero106 BC-43 BC · 1st millennium BC · Italy · Politicians4.0
  8. 8George Washington1732-1799 · 18th century · United States · Politicians3.8
  9. 9Socrates470 BC-399 BC · 1st millennium BC · Brazil · Academics3.4
  10. 10Virgil70 BC-19 BC · 1st millennium BC · Italy · Writers3.3
  11. 11Abraham Lincoln1809-1865 · 19th century · United States · Politicians2.0
  12. 12Euclid333 BC-285 BC · 1st millennium BC · Academics1.9
  13. 13Thomas Jefferson1743-1826 · 18th century · United States · Politicians1.6
  14. 14Ovid43 BC-17 · 1st millennium BC · Italy · Writers1.6
  15. 15Mark Twain1835-1910 · 19th century · United States · Writers1.5
  16. 16Plutarch40-120 · 1st century · Academics1.5
  17. 17Cleopatra69 BC-30 BC · 1st millennium BC · Egypt · Historical Figures1.4
  18. 18Theodore Roosevelt1858-1919 · 19th century · United States · Politicians1.4
  19. 19Woodrow Wilson1856-1924 · 19th century · United States · Politicians1.4
  20. 20William Henry1774-1836 · 19th century · Scientists1.3
  21. 21Benjamin Franklin1706-1790 · 18th century · United States · Politicians1.3
  22. 22Herodotus484 BC-425 BC · 1st millennium BC · Turkey · Writers1.3
  23. 23Charlemagne748-814 · 8th century · Historical Figures1.3
  24. 24Rembrandt1606-1669 · 17th century · Netherlands · Artists1.3
  25. 25Euripides480 BC-406 BC · 1st millennium BC · Writers1.2
Show 75 more

Lived then

The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 20th century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.

  1. 1Sergei Yesenin1895-1925 · Russia · Writers11 decades
  2. 2Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn1918-2008 · Russia · Writers6 decades
  3. 3Mikhail Bulgakov1891-1940 · Russia · Writers8 decades
  4. 4Vladimir Mayakovsky1893-1930 · Russia · Writers11 decades
  5. 5Anna Akhmatova1889-1966 · Russia · Writers11 decades
  6. 6Marina Tsvetaeva1892-1941 · Russia · Writers10 decades
  7. 7Maxim Gorky1868-1936 · Russia · Writers13 decades
  8. 8Alexander Blok1880-1921 · Russia · Writers13 decades
  9. 9Mikhail Sholokhov1905-1984 · Russia · Writers9 decades
  10. 10Boris Pasternak1890-1960 · Russia · Writers0 decades
  11. 11Lyudmila Pavlichenko1916-1974 · Russia · Writers5 decades
  12. 12Victor Pelevinborn 1962 · Russia · Writers3 decades
  13. 13Sergey Mikhalkov1913-2009 · Russia · Writers0 decades
  14. 14Anton Denikin1872-1947 · Russia · Writers3 decades
  15. 15Yevgeny Zamyatin1884-1937 · Russia · Writers11 decades
  16. 16Korney Chukovsky1882-1969 · Russia · Writers12 decades
  17. 17Faustina Kowalska1905-1938 · Russia · Writers0 decades
  18. 18Aleksandr Kuprin1870-1938 · Russia · Writers12 decades
  19. 19Yevgeny Yevtushenko1933-2017 · Russia · Writers6 decades
  20. 20Władysław Reymont1867-1925 · Russia · Writers0 decades
  21. 21Gherman Titov1935-2000 · Russia · Writers6 decades
  22. 22Leonid Andreyev1871-1919 · Russia · Writers12 decades
  23. 23Bulat Okudzhava1924-1997 · Russia · Writers6 decades
  24. 24Yanka Kupala1882-1942 · Russia · Writers11 decades
  25. 25Andrei Platonov1899-1951 · Russia · Writers10 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.