← 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
Narendra Modi2 decades - 2
Indira Gandhi7 decades - 3
Jawaharlal Nehru10 decades - 4
Rajiv Gandhi4 decades - 5
Droupadi Murmunot measured- - 6
Pervez Musharraf2 decades - 7
Atal Bihari Vajpayee5 decades - 8
Subhas Chandra Bose9 decades - 9
Vallabhbhai Patel9 decades - 10
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan7 decades - 11
Rajnath Singh1 decades - 12
Morarji Desai7 decades - 13
Pratibha Patil0 decades - 14
Lal Bahadur Shastri7 decades - 15
Pranab Mukherjee5 decades - 16
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Khaleda Zia4 decades - 17
P. V. Narasimha Rao3 decades - 18
Rajendra Prasad9 decades - 19
Mamata Banerjee3 decades - 20
Nathuram Godse1 decades - 21
Jaya Bachchan0 decades - 22
Ram Nath Kovind0 decades - 23
Sushma Swaraj3 decades - 24Phoolan Devi3 decades
- 25
Charan Singh9 decades - 26
Chandra Shekhar6 decades - 27
Nirmala Sitharamannot measured- - 28
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haqnot measured- - 29
H. D. Deve Gowdanot measured- - 30
Vinayak Damodar Savarkarnot measured- - 31
Amit Shahnot measured- - 32
L. K. Advaninot measured- - 33
Subrahmanyam Jaishankarnot measured- - 34
Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed2 decades - 35
Aga Khan IIInot measured- - 36
Lalu Prasad Yadavnot measured- - 37
Mayawatinot measured- - 38
Shashi Tharoornot measured- - 39
Sanjay Gandhinot measured- - 40
Feroze Gandhinot measured- - 41
M. K. Stalinnot measured- - 42
Abul Kalam Azad9 decades - 43
Mohammed Nadir Shahnot measured- - 44
Jaswant Singhnot measured- - 45
I. K. Gujral1 decades - 46
Vijay Mallyanot measured- - 47
Shyama Prasad Mukherjeenot measured- - 48
Erode Venkatappa Ramasamynot measured- - 49
Liaquat Ali Khan8 decades - 50
Bal Thackeraynot measured- - 51
Vishwanath Pratap Singh2 decades - 52
C. Rajagopalacharinot measured- - 53
Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit3 decades - 54
Maneka Gandhinot measured- - 55
Zakir Husain6 decades - 56
Ramaswamy Venkataraman0 decades - 57
Kocheril R. Narayanannot measured- - 58
P. Chidambaramnot measured- - 59
Vasundhara Rajenot measured- - 60
Jayaprakash Narayannot measured- - 61
Mohammad Hamid Ansarinot measured- - 62
Mallikarjun Khargenot measured- - 63
V. V. Giri5 decades - 64
Arun Jaitleynot measured- - 65
Muthuvel Karunanidhinot measured- - 66
Gulzarilal Nanda3 decades - 67
Shankar Dayal Sharma1 decades - 68
Anandiben Patelnot measured- - 69
Zail Singh4 decades - 70
Nitish Kumarnot measured- - 71
Nara Chandrababu Naidunot measured- - 72
Ram Vilas Paswannot measured- - 73
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy1 decades - 74
Mulayam Singh Yadavnot measured- - 75
Bhairon Singh Shekhawatnot measured- - 76Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwalenot measured-
- 77
Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidunot measured- - 78
Lakshmi Sahgalnot measured- - 79
Harilal Gandhinot measured- - 80
Iskander Mirza6 decades - 81
Jagat Prakash Naddanot measured- - 82
George Fernandesnot measured- - 83
Yashwant Sinhanot measured- - 84
M. S. Swaminathannot measured- - 85
Mohan Bhagwatnot measured- - 86
Sheila Dikshitnot measured- - 87
K.Kamarajarnot measured- - 88
Shivraj Singh Chouhannot measured- - 89
Kapil Sibalnot measured- - 90
Aruna Asaf Alinot measured- - 91
Sheikh Muhammad Abdullahnot measured- - 92
Ravi Shankar Prasadnot measured- - 93
Gayatri Devinot measured- - 94
Nitin Gadkarinot measured- - 95
Gopal Krishna Gokhalenot measured- - 96
Pinarayi Vijayannot measured-
- 97
Jyoti Basunot measured- - 98
Mohammad Hidayatullahnot measured- - 99
Meira Kumarnot measured- - 100
K. Chandrashekar Raonot 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.