← 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
Hirohito10 decades - 2
Naruhito1 decades - 3
Yoko Ono5 decades - 4
Hayao Miyazaki2 decades - 5
Sanae Takaichi0 decades - 6
Akira Kurosawa6 decades - 7
Akihito8 decades - 8
Yukio Mishima6 decades - 9
Haruki Murakami2 decades - 10
Alberto Fujimori4 decades - 11
Hideki Tojo7 decades - 12
Toshiro Mifune5 decades - 13
Yayoi Kusama2 decades - 14
Akira Toriyama0 decades - 15
Isoroku Yamamoto3 decades - 16
Shigeru Ishiba0 decades - 17
Shigeru Miyamoto0 decades - 18
Emperor Taishō0 decades - 19
Fumio Kishida0 decades - 20
Hiroo Onoda0 decades - 21
Osamu Dazai0 decades - 22
Takeshi Kitano0 decades - 23
Hideo Kojima0 decades - 24
Yoshihide Suga0 decades - 25
Osamu Tezuka2 decades - 26
Ken Watanabe0 decades - 27
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa0 decades - 28
Shinzō Abe0 decades - 29
Yoshinori Ohsumi0 decades - 30
Shimon Sakaguchinot measured- - 31
Junichiro Koizumi2 decades - 32Shōkō Asaharanot measured-
- 33
Ryuichi Sakamoto0 decades - 34
Yasunari Kawabata1 decades - 35
Shuji Nakamura0 decades - 36
Kōnosuke Matsushitanot measured- - 37
Junko Tabei0 decades - 38
Tarō Asō0 decades - 39
Hiroyuki Sanadanot measured- - 40
Ichirō Mizukinot measured- - 41
Yoshihiko Noda0 decades - 42
Isao Takahata0 decades - 43
Kunishige Kamamoto0 decades - 44
Joe Hisaishi0 decades - 45
Ryū Murakaminot measured- - 46
Kenzaburō Ōe0 decades - 47
Natsume Sōseki0 decades - 48
Empress Masakonot measured- - 49
Yasujirō Ozu0 decades - 50
Masayoshi Sonnot measured- - 51
Satoru Iwata0 decades - 52
Kensō Soainot measured- - 53
Ryutaro Hashimoto2 decades - 54
Kenzō Tangenot measured- - 55
Yukio Hatoyama0 decades - 56
Leo Esaki0 decades - 57
Morihei Ueshiba0 decades - 58
Koichi Tanaka0 decades - 59
Naoto Kan0 decades - 60Satoshi Konnot measured-
- 61
Shin'ichirō Tomonaga0 decades - 62
Rumiko Takahashinot measured- - 63
Noboru Takeshitanot measured- - 64
Zenkō Suzukinot measured- - 65
Chiune Sugiharanot measured- - 66
Soichiro Honda0 decades - 67
Tadao Ando4 decades - 68
Shirō Ishiinot measured- - 69
Fumimaro Konoenot measured- - 70
Kōbō Abe0 decades - 71
Eisaku Satō0 decades - 72
Toshiki Kaifu1 decades - 73
Tsutomu Hata1 decades - 74
Jiroemon Kimuranot measured- - 75
Banana Yoshimotonot measured- - 76
Tasuku Honjo0 decades - 77
Yasuo Fukuda1 decades - 78
Nobusuke Kishi3 decades - 79Tsutomu Yamaguchinot measured-
- 80
Shintarō Ishiharanot measured- - 81
Tatsuya Nakadainot measured- - 82
Gosho Aoyamanot measured- - 83
Empress Michiko1 decades - 84
Masatoshi Koshiba0 decades - 85
Shūsaku Endōnot measured- - 86
Kane Tanakanot measured- - 87
Yasuhiro Nakasone4 decades - 88
Momoko Kōchinot measured- - 89
Shigeru Yoshida5 decades - 90
Junji Itōnot measured- - 91
Takaaki Kajita0 decades - 92
Tomoyuki Yamashitanot measured- - 93
Akira Yoshino0 decades - 94
Hiroshi Amanonot measured- - 95
Yuriko Koikenot measured- - 96
Shinya Yamanaka0 decades - 97
Tadamichi Kuribayashinot measured- - 98
Isamu Akasaki0 decades - 99
Hirokazu Koreedanot measured- - 100
Takashi Murakaminot 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.