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. 1Marcel Proust1871-1922 · France · Writers12 decades
  2. 2Antoine de Saint-Exupéry1900-1944 · France · Writers9 decades
  3. 3Ivan Bunin1870-1953 · France · Writers11 decades
  4. 4Jean Cocteau1889-1963 · France · Writers11 decades
  5. 5Anaïs Nin1903-1977 · France · Writers1 decades
  6. 6Louis-Ferdinand Céline1894-1961 · France · Writers9 decades
  7. 7Annie Ernauxborn 1940 · France · Writers4 decades
  8. 8Michel Houellebecqborn 1956 · France · Writers3 decades
  9. 9André Gide1869-1951 · France · Writers13 decades
  10. 10Aleksey Tolstoy1882-1945 · France · Writers13 decades
  11. 11Marguerite Duras1914-1996 · France · Writers8 decades
  12. 12Milan Kundera1929-2023 · France · Writers6 decades
  13. 13Guillaume Apollinaire1880-1918 · France · Writers12 decades
  14. 14Jacques Lacan1901-1981 · France · Writers7 decades
  15. 15Romain Gary1914-1980 · France · Writers8 decades
  16. 16Marc Bloch1886-1944 · France · Writers12 decades
  17. 17André Malraux1901-1976 · France · Writers11 decades
  18. 18Marcel Pagnol1895-1974 · France · Writers10 decades
  19. 19Marguerite Yourcenar1903-1987 · France · Writers9 decades
  20. 20Colette1873-1954 · France · Writersnot measured-
  21. 21Georges Bataille1897-1962 · France · Writers9 decades
  22. 22Françoise Sagan1935-2004 · France · Writers8 decades
  23. 23Thích Nhất Hạnh1926-2022 · France · Writersnot measured-
  24. 24André Breton1896-1966 · France · Writers10 decades
  25. 25Boris Vian1920-1959 · France · Writers8 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.