← 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
Mao Zedong275 - 2
Lu Xun60 - 3
Liu Shaoqi58 - 4
Zhou Enlai55 - 5
Lin Biao40 - 6
Deng Xiaoping34 - 7
Sun Yat-sen31 - 8
Jiang Zemin13 - 9
Confucius12 - 10
Jiang Qing10 - 11
Zhu De9.6 - 12
Cao Xueqin5.9 - 13
Li Peng5.4 - 14
Lee Teng-hui5.2 - 15
Yuan Shikai5.0 - 16
Laozi4.7 - 17
Lin Yutang4.6 - 18
Soong Ching-ling4.4 - 19Gao Ming3.4
- 20
Zhuang Zhou2.8 - 21
Li Bai2.3 - 22
Kang Youwei2.3 - 23
Li Hongzhang2.0 - 24Wang Chong1.9
- 25
Wang Anshi1.7
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 20th century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Elizabeth II8 decades - 2
Osama bin Laden3 decades - 3
Diana, Princess of Wales0 decades - 4
George VI10 decades - 5
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi4 decades - 6
George V16 decades - 7
Edward VIII9 decades - 8
Hirohito10 decades - 9
Nicholas II of Russia14 decades - 10
Erwin Rommel8 decades - 11
Douglas MacArthur10 decades - 12
Ted Bundy4 decades - 13
Haile Selassie0 decades - 14
Puyi8 decades - 15
Lee Harvey Oswald6 decades - 16
Jeffrey Dahmer3 decades - 17
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother6 decades - 18
Bhumibol Adulyadej5 decades - 19
Edmund Hillary7 decades - 20
Harald V of Norway0 decades - 21
Ibn Saud10 decades - 22
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon0 decades - 23
Faisal of Saudi Arabia2 decades - 24
Wallis Simpson4 decades - 25
Alfonso XIII of Spain7 decades - 26
Roald Amundsen12 decades - 27
Charles I of Austrianot measured- - 28
Tenzing Norgay3 decades - 29
Ernest Shackleton11 decades - 30
Mary of Tecknot measured- - 31
Umberto II of Italynot measured- - 32
Hussein of Jordan7 decades - 33
Isoroku Yamamoto3 decades - 34
Albert II of Belgium0 decades - 35
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia11 decades - 36
Manfred von Richthofen7 decades - 37
Simo Häyhä0 decades - 38
Erich von Manstein7 decades - 39
Emperor Taishō0 decades - 40
Victor Emmanuel III of Italy8 decades - 41
Constantine II of Greece0 decades - 42
Fahd of Saudi Arabia2 decades - 43
Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein2 decades - 44
Friedrich Paulus7 decades - 45
Chester W. Nimitz8 decades - 46
Wilhelmina of the Netherlandsnot measured- - 47
Rainier III, Prince of Monaco1 decades - 48
Leopold III of Belgium1 decades - 49
Robert Falcon Scott3 decades - 50
Albert I of Belgium0 decades - 51
Queen Sofía of Spain5 decades - 52
Gerd von Rundstedt6 decades - 53
Juliana of the Netherlands2 decades - 54
Saud of Saudi Arabia4 decades - 55
Ed Geinnot measured- - 56
Michael I of Romania0 decades - 57
Baudouin of Belgium0 decades - 58
Princess Alice of Battenberg0 decades - 59
Klaus Barbie4 decades - 60
Albert Fishnot measured- - 61
Desmond Dossnot measured- - 62
Khalid of Saudi Arabia0 decades - 63
Mehmet Ali Ağca0 decades - 64
Erich Hartmann4 decades - 65
Constantine I of Greece0 decades - 66
Olav V of Norway0 decades - 67
Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia11 decades - 68
Abdullah I of Jordan0 decades - 69
Hassan II of Morocconot measured- - 70
Haakon VII of Norway0 decades - 71
Wilhelm Canaris8 decades - 72
Walter Model3 decades - 73
Lavr Kornilov5 decades - 74
Richard E. Byrd10 decades - 75
George Mallorynot measured- - 76
Bảo Đại1 decades - 77
Paul of Greece0 decades - 78
Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russianot measured- - 79
Junko Tabei0 decades - 80
Alexander I of Yugoslavia0 decades - 81
Manuel II of Portugal0 decades - 82Christopher McCandlessnot measured-
- 83
Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia13 decades - 84
Norman Schwarzkopf Jr.not measured- - 85
Fedor von Bock3 decades - 86
Christian X of Denmark0 decades - 87
Maud of Wales1 decades - 88
Peter II of Yugoslavia0 decades - 89
Boris III of Bulgaria9 decades - 90
Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russianot measured- - 91
Empress Masakonot measured- - 92
George II of Greece1 decades - 93
Ferdinand I of Romanianot measured- - 94
Zita of Bourbon-Parmanot measured- - 95
Amon Göthnot measured- - 96
Princess Märtha of Swedennot measured- - 97
Amanullah Khan5 decades - 98
Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewoodnot measured- - 99
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Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russianot measured- - 100
Fuad I of Egyptnot measured-
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.