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

  1. 1Mao Zedong1893-1976 · 20th century · China · Politicians275
  2. 2Lu Xun1881-1936 · 20th century · China · Writers60
  3. 3Liu Shaoqi1898-1969 · 20th century · China · Politicians58
  4. 4Zhou Enlai1898-1976 · 20th century · China · Politicians55
  5. 5Lin Biao1907-1971 · 20th century · China · Politicians40
  6. 6Deng Xiaoping1904-1997 · 20th century · China · Politicians34
  7. 7Sun Yat-sen1866-1925 · 20th century · China · Politicians31
  8. 8Jiang Zemin1926-2022 · 20th century · China · Politicians13
  9. 9Confucius551 BC-479 BC · 1st millennium BC · China · Academics12
  10. 10Jiang Qing1914-1991 · 20th century · China · Actors10
  11. 11Zhu De1886-1976 · 20th century · China · Politicians9.6
  12. 12Cao Xueqin1724-1760 · 18th century · China · Writers5.9
  13. 13Li Peng1928-2019 · 20th century · China · Politicians5.4
  14. 14Lee Teng-hui1923-2020 · 20th century · Taiwan · Politicians5.2
  15. 15Yuan Shikai1859-1916 · 19th century · China · Politicians5.0
  16. 16Laozi579 BC-500 BC · 1st millennium BC · Academics4.7
  17. 17Lin Yutang1895-1976 · 20th century · China · Writers4.6
  18. 18Soong Ching-ling1893-1981 · 20th century · China · Politicians4.4
  19. 19Gao Ming1305-1370 · 14th century · Writers3.4
  20. 20Zhuang Zhou369 BC-288 BC · 1st millennium BC · China · Academics2.8
  21. 21Li Bai701-762 · 8th century · Writers2.3
  22. 22Kang Youwei1858-1927 · 19th century · China · Politicians2.3
  23. 23Li Hongzhang1823-1901 · 19th century · China · Politicians2.0
  24. 24Wang Chong27-97 · 1st century · Scientists1.9
  25. 25Wang Anshi1021-1086 · 11th century · China · Politicians1.7
Show 75 more

Lived then

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

  1. 1Donna Stricklandborn 1959 · Canada · Scientists0 decades
  2. 2David Suzukiborn 1936 · Canada · Scientistsnot measured-
  3. 3Louis Slotin1910-1946 · Canada · Scientistsnot measured-
  4. 4Arthur B. McDonaldborn 1943 · Canada · Scientists0 decades
  5. 5Willard Boyle1924-2011 · Canada · Scientists0 decades
  6. 6Gerald Bull1928-1990 · Canada · Scientistsnot measured-
  7. 7Hubert Reeves1932-2023 · Canada · Scientistsnot measured-
  8. 8Ludwig von Bertalanffy1901-1972 · Canada · Scientistsnot measured-
  9. 9Rudolph A. Marcus1923-2026 · Canada · Scientists0 decades
  10. 10Roberta Bondarborn 1945 · Canada · Scientistsnot measured-
  11. 11Ralph M. Steinman1943-2011 · Canada · Scientists0 decades
  12. 12Jim Peeblesborn 1935 · Canada · Scientists0 decades
  13. 13Gerhard Herzberg1904-1999 · Canada · Scientists2 decades
  14. 14Joseph-Armand Bombardier1907-1964 · Canada · Scientistsnot measured-
  15. 15Peter Wattsborn 1958 · Canada · Scientistsnot measured-
  16. 16Walter Kohn1923-2016 · Canada · Scientists0 decades
  17. 17Reginald Fessenden1866-1932 · Canada · Scientistsnot measured-
  18. 18Richard S. Suttonborn 1950 · Canada · Scientistsnot measured-
  19. 19John Polanyiborn 1929 · Canada · Scientistsnot measured-
  20. 20Michael Smith1932-2000 · Canada · Scientists8 decades
  21. 21Paul Hellyer1923-2021 · Canada · Scientistsnot measured-
  22. 22Ursula Franklin1921-2016 · Canada · Scientistsnot measured-
  23. 23John Garand1888-1974 · Canada · Scientistsnot measured-
  24. 24Maud Menten1879-1960 · Canada · Scientistsnot measured-
  25. 25Helen Sawyer Hogg1905-1993 · Canada · 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.