← 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 English books during the 20th century, whenever they lived.
- 1
Jesus30 - 2
Aristotle7.1 - 3
Plato7.1 - 4
Homer7.1 - 5
Augustus4.9 - 6
Johns Hopkins4.4 - 7
Cicero4.0 - 8
George Washington3.8 - 9
Socrates3.4 - 10
Virgil3.3 - 11
Abraham Lincoln2.0 - 12
Euclid1.9 - 13
Thomas Jefferson1.6 - 14
Ovid1.6 - 15
Mark Twain1.5 - 16
Plutarch1.5 - 17
Cleopatra1.4 - 18
Theodore Roosevelt1.4 - 19
Woodrow Wilson1.4 - 20
William Henry1.3 - 21
Benjamin Franklin1.3 - 22
Herodotus1.3 - 23
Charlemagne1.3 - 24
Rembrandt1.3 - 25
Euripides1.2
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 20th century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
B. R. Ambedkar8 decades - 2
Srinivasa Ramanujan0 decades - 3
Manmohan Singh5 decades - 4
Jiddu Krishnamurti1 decades - 5
Amartya Sen4 decades - 6
Paramahansa Yogananda6 decades - 7
Aurobindo Ghosh4 decades - 8
Ramana Maharshi6 decades - 9
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi5 decades - 10
Vandana Shiva3 decades - 11
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak4 decades - 12
Raghuram Rajannot measured- - 13
Meher Babanot measured- - 14
Syed Abul Ala Maududinot measured- - 15
Mahmood Mamdaninot measured- - 16
Anandamayi Manot measured- - 17
S. R. Ranganathannot measured- - 18
Vinoba Bhavenot measured- - 19
Sivananda Saraswatinot measured- - 20D. R. Kaprekarnot measured-
- 21
Homi K. Bhabhanot measured- - 22
Calyampudi Radhakrishna Raonot measured- - 23
U. G. Krishnamurtinot measured- - 24Mahbub ul Haqnot measured-
- 25
Arun Manilal Gandhinot measured- - 26
Raj Reddynot measured- - 27Tirumalai Krishnamacharyanot measured-
- 28
Sathamangalam Ranga Iyengar Srinivasa Varadhannot measured- - 29
Damodar Dharmananda Kosambinot measured- - 30Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwinot measured-
- 31
Wahiduddin Khannot measured- - 32
Harish-Chandranot measured- - 33
Prabhat Rainjan Sarkarnot measured- - 34
Jayati Ghoshnot measured- - 35
Jagdish Bhagwatinot measured- - 36Muhammad Hamidullahnot measured-
- 37
Aswath Damodarannot measured- - 38
Montek Singh Ahluwalianot measured- - 39
Irawati Karvenot measured- - 40
Rajeev Motwaninot measured- - 41
Rajendra K. Pachaurinot measured- - 42
C. Rangarajannot measured- - 43
Kaushik Basunot measured- - 44
Madhav Gadgilnot measured- - 45Madhumala Chattopadhyaynot measured-
- 46
Moojinot measured- - 47
Vidyasagarnot measured- - 48
C. K. Prahaladnot measured- - 49Pandurang Shastri Athavalenot measured-
- 50Narendra Karmarkarnot measured-
- 51
Sugata Mitranot measured- - 52
R. K. Shanmukham Chettynot measured- - 53
John Mathainot measured- - 54
Duvvuri Subbaraonot measured- - 55
Nanabhoy Palkhivalanot measured- - 56
Avinash Dixitnot measured- - 57M. N. Srinivasnot measured-
- 58
Devaki Jainnot measured- - 59
Birbal Sahninot measured- - 60Ramchandra Gandhinot measured-
- 61
Chandra Talpade Mohantynot measured- - 62
Sri Bhagavannot measured- - 63
D. V. Gundappanot measured- - 64
Amit Chaudhurinot measured- - 65
Prabhat Patnaiknot measured- - 66
Isher Judge Ahluwalianot measured- - 67
B. B. Lalnot measured- - 68
M. S. Narasimhannot measured- - 69
Gopinath Kavirajnot measured- - 70
Ernest Dunlop Swintonnot measured- - 71
Bina Agarwalnot measured- - 72
Vina Mazumdarnot measured- - 73
Ziauddin Ahmadnot measured- - 74Raj Chandra Bosenot measured-
- 75
Vinod Rainot measured- - 76
Zarina Mehtanot measured- - 77
Varkey Vithayathilnot measured- - 78
Probal Dasguptanot measured- - 79
K. S. Chandrasekharannot measured- - 80
Y. Venugopal Reddynot measured- - 81Meera Nandanot measured-
- 82
Verrier Elwinnot measured- - 83
Raman Parimalanot measured- - 84
Ramesh Balsekarnot measured- - 85
I. G. Patelnot measured- - 86
Debiprasad Chattopadhyaynot measured- - 87
Veena Dasnot measured- - 88
Conjeevaram Srirangachari Seshadrinot measured- - 89
J. C. Kumarappanot measured- - 90
Dada J. P. Vaswaninot measured- - 91
Mangala Narlikarnot measured- - 92
Arogyaswami Paulrajnot measured- - 93
Bimal Jalannot measured- - 94
Benoy Kumar Sarkarnot measured- - 95
Swami Karpatrinot measured- - 96
Abdul Majid Daryabadinot measured- - 97
Dhirendra Brahmacharinot measured- - 98
Padma Desainot measured- - 99
Baba Hari Dassnot measured- - 100
Camille Bulckenot 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.