← 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
Voltaire23 - 2
Louis XIV of France15 - 3
Molière12 - 4
Stendhal10 - 5
Victor Hugo9.4 - 6
Louis XVI of France7.0 - 7
Montesquieu6.4 - 8
Louis XV of France6.2 - 9
François Fénelon4.6 - 10
Joan of Arc4.0 - 11
Napoleon III3.6 - 12
George Sand3.4 - 13
Louis XVIII of France3.1 - 14
François Mitterrand2.3 - 15
Pierre de Marivaux2.2 - 16
Anatole France2.2 - 17
Marie Antoinette2.1 - 18
Francis de Sales2.0 - 19
André Gide1.9 - 20
Léon Blum1.9 - 21
Jacques Chirac1.8 - 22
Charles X of France1.8 - 23
Paul Valéry1.7 - 24
Auguste Comte1.7 - 25
Marcel Proust1.7
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 20th century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Diego Maradona4 decades - 2
Pelé3 decades - 3
José Mourinho1 decades - 4
Johan Cruyff4 decades - 5
Alex Ferguson2 decades - 6
Carlo Ancelotti2 decades - 7
Franz Beckenbauer5 decades - 8
Gary Lineker1 decades - 9
Michel Platini5 decades - 10
Arsène Wenger2 decades - 11
Lev Yashinnot measured- - 12
Lothar Matthäus3 decades - 13
Kevin Keegan2 decades - 14
George Best4 decades - 15
Alfredo Di Stéfano4 decades - 16
Ferenc Puskás0 decades
- 17
Gerd Müller7 decades - 18
Marco van Basten0 decades - 19
Jürgen Klinsmann3 decades - 20
Bobby Charlton2 decades - 21
Ruud Gullit0 decades - 22
Franco Baresi3 decades - 23
Eusébionot measured- - 24
Roberto Mancini3 decades - 25
Joachim Löw2 decades - 26
Claudio Ranieri1 decades - 27
Kenny Dalglish1 decades - 28
Peter Schmeichel0 decades - 29
Ronald Koeman1 decades - 30
David Moyes0 decades - 31
Mario Kempes1 decades - 32
Rafael Beníteznot measured- - 33
Garrincha6 decades - 34
Louis van Gaal1 decades - 35
Frank Rijkaard0 decades - 36
Rudi Völler3 decades - 37
Paolo Rossinot measured- - 38
Luis Suáreznot measured- - 39
Fabio Capello3 decades - 40
Denis Law1 decades - 41
Dino Zoff4 decades - 42
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge3 decades - 43
Marcelo Bielsa2 decades - 44
Carlos Valderramanot measured- - 45
Vicente del Bosque1 decades - 46
Just Fontaine3 decades - 47
Salvatore Schillaci0 decades - 48
Mircea Lucescunot measured- - 49
Jean-Pierre Papin3 decades - 50
Luciano Spalletti1 decades - 51
Marcello Lippi3 decades - 52
Bobby Robson1 decades - 53
Maurizio Sarri1 decades - 54
Andrés Escobarnot measured- - 55
Michael Laudrup0 decades - 56
Hugo Sánchez0 decades - 57
Andreas Brehme2 decades - 58
Carlos Queiroz0 decades - 59
Berti Vogts3 decades - 60
Giuseppe Meazza3 decades - 61
Ian Wrightnot measured- - 62
Peter Shilton0 decades - 63
Giovanni Trapattoni4 decades - 64
Gianluca Vialli3 decades - 65
Jupp Heynckes3 decades - 66
Bobby Moore2 decades - 67
Dick Advocaatnot measured- - 68
Sven-Göran Eriksson0 decades - 69
Bill Shankly1 decades - 70
Ian Rush0 decades - 71
Dunganot measured- - 72
Brian Cloughnot measured- - 73
Bebeto0 decades - 74
Luiz Felipe Scolari0 decades - 75
Mark Hughesnot measured- - 76
Gigi Riva5 decades - 77
Ernesto Valverde0 decades - 78
Uli Hoeneß4 decades - 79
Harry Redknappnot measured- - 80
Paul Breitner5 decades - 81
Pierre Littbarski1 decades - 82
Stanley Matthewsnot measured- - 83
Daniel Passarella3 decades - 84
Roger Milla4 decades - 85
Guus Hiddink0 decades - 86
Javier Aguirrenot measured- - 87
Luis de la Fuentenot measured- - 88
Gianni Rivera5 decades - 89
Luis Aragonés2 decades - 90
Kunishige Kamamoto0 decades - 91
Geoff Hurstnot measured- - 92
David Seaman0 decades - 93
Raymond Kopa3 decades - 94
Vahid Halilhodžićnot measured- - 95
Roy Hodgsonnot measured- - 96
Sepp Maier5 decades - 97
Mário Zagallo0 decades - 98
Giuseppe Bergomi2 decades - 99
Gordon Banks1 decades - 100
Jorge Valdano3 decades
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.