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 French books during the 20th century, whenever they lived.

  1. 1Voltaire1694-1778 · 18th century · France · Writers23
  2. 2Louis XIV of France1638-1715 · 17th century · France · Historical Figures15
  3. 3Molière1622-1673 · 17th century · France · Writers12
  4. 4Stendhal1783-1842 · 19th century · France · Writers10
  5. 5Victor Hugo1802-1885 · 19th century · France · Writers9.4
  6. 6Louis XVI of France1754-1793 · 18th century · France · Historical Figures7.0
  7. 7Montesquieu1689-1755 · 18th century · France · Academics6.4
  8. 8Louis XV of France1710-1774 · 18th century · France · Historical Figures6.2
  9. 9François Fénelon1651-1715 · 17th century · France · Religious Figures4.6
  10. 10Joan of Arc1412-1431 · 15th century · France4.0
  11. 11Napoleon III1808-1873 · 19th century · France · Politicians3.6
  12. 12George Sand1804-1876 · 19th century · France · Writers3.4
  13. 13Louis XVIII of France1755-1824 · 18th century · France · Politicians3.1
  14. 14François Mitterrand1916-1996 · 20th century · France · Politicians2.3
  15. 15Pierre de Marivaux1688-1763 · 18th century · France · Writers2.2
  16. 16Anatole France1844-1924 · 19th century · France · Writers2.2
  17. 17Marie Antoinette1755-1793 · 18th century · France · Historical Figures2.1
  18. 18Francis de Sales1567-1622 · 17th century · France · Religious Figures2.0
  19. 19André Gide1869-1951 · 20th century · France · Writers1.9
  20. 20Léon Blum1872-1950 · 20th century · France · Politicians1.9
  21. 21Jacques Chirac1932-2019 · 20th century · France · Politicians1.8
  22. 22Charles X of France1757-1836 · 18th century · France · Politicians1.8
  23. 23Paul Valéry1871-1945 · 20th century · France · Writers1.7
  24. 24Auguste Comte1798-1857 · 19th century · France · Academics1.7
  25. 25Marcel Proust1871-1922 · 20th century · France · Writers1.7
Show 75 more

Lived then

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

  1. 1Mikhail Kalashnikov1919-2013 · Russia · Scientists4 decades
  2. 2Sergei Korolev1906-1966 · Russia · Scientists6 decades
  3. 3Andrei Sakharov1921-1989 · Russia · Scientists5 decades
  4. 4Boris Nemtsov1959-2015 · Russia · Scientists3 decades
  5. 5Lev Landau1908-1968 · Russia · Scientists6 decades
  6. 6Vladimir Komarov1927-1967 · Russia · Scientists7 decades
  7. 7Valery Legasov1936-1988 · Russia · Scientistsnot measured-
  8. 8Pyotr Kapitsa1894-1984 · Russia · Scientists0 decades
  9. 9Mikhail Botvinnik1911-1995 · Russia · Scientists7 decades
  10. 10Nikolai Vavilov1887-1943 · Russia · Scientists8 decades
  11. 11Trofim Lysenko1898-1976 · Russia · Scientists8 decades
  12. 12Zhores Alferov1930-2019 · Russia · Scientists2 decades
  13. 13Vitaly Ginzburg1916-2009 · Russia · Scientists3 decades
  14. 14Igor Tamm1895-1971 · Russia · Scientists5 decades
  15. 15Pavel Cherenkov1904-1990 · Russia · Scientists0 decades
  16. 16Gustav Ludwig Hertz1887-1975 · Russia · Scientists7 decades
  17. 17Igor Kurchatov1903-1960 · Russia · Scientists7 decades
  18. 18Naina Yeltsinaborn 1932 · Russia · Scientistsnot measured-
  19. 19Nikolay Semyonov1896-1986 · Russia · Scientistsnot measured-
  20. 20Nikolay Gennadiyevich Basov1922-2001 · Russia · Scientists1 decades
  21. 21Sergei Krikalevborn 1958 · Russia · Scientistsnot measured-
  22. 22Ilya Frank1908-1990 · Russia · Scientists0 decades
  23. 23Andrei Tupolev1888-1972 · Russia · Scientists6 decades
  24. 24Oleg Antonov1906-1984 · Russia · Scientistsnot measured-
  25. 25Artem Mikoyan1905-1970 · Russia · Scientistsnot measured-
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.