← 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
Vladimir Putin3 decades - 2
Joseph Stalin9 decades - 3
Vladimir Lenin12 decades - 4
Mikhail Gorbachev4 decades - 5
Nikita Khrushchev10 decades - 6
Leonid Brezhnev7 decades - 7
Boris Yeltsin4 decades - 8
Grigori Rasputin11 decades - 9
Georgy Zhukov6 decades - 10
Yuri Andropov4 decades - 11
Sergey Lavrov2 decades - 12
Lavrentiy Beria7 decades - 13
Vyacheslav Molotov7 decades - 14
Konstantin Chernenko4 decades - 15
Sergei Shoigu3 decades - 16
Vladimir Zhirinovsky3 decades - 17
Anatoly Karpov5 decades - 18
Dzhokhar Dudayev3 decades - 19
Georgy Malenkov4 decades - 20
Alexander Kolchak4 decades - 21
Alexander Kerensky9 decades - 22
Konstantin Rokossovsky5 decades - 23
Józef Piłsudski3 decades - 24
Nadezhda Krupskaya11 decades - 25
Mikhail Kalinin10 decades - 26
Valentina Matviyenko3 decades - 27
Nikolai Bukharin5 decades - 28
Nikolai Yezhov5 decades - 29
Gennady Zyuganov3 decades - 30
Akhmad Kadyrov2 decades - 31
Mikhail Tukhachevsky7 decades - 32
Semyon Budyonny9 decades - 33
Andrei Gromyko4 decades - 34
Alexandra Kollontai7 decades - 35
Symon Petliura7 decades - 36
Yury Luzhkov3 decades - 37
Victor Chernomyrdin3 decades - 38
Alexei Kosygin6 decades - 39
Lazar Kaganovich7 decades - 40
Ivan Konev5 decades - 41
Nikolai Patrushev2 decades - 42
Mikhail Frunze10 decades - 43
Evgeny Primakov3 decades - 44
Sergey Kirov9 decades - 45
Aleksandr Vasilevsky5 decades - 46
Alexei Rykov6 decades - 47
Vasily Chuikov6 decades - 48
Semyon Timoshenko4 decades - 49
Nikolai Bulganin3 decades - 50
Raisa Gorbacheva3 decades - 51
Viktor Zubkov2 decades - 52
Genrikh Yagodanot measured- - 53
Aslan Maskhadov2 decades - 54
Bolesław Bierut0 decades - 55
Mykhailo Hrushevskyi3 decades - 56
Fanny Kaplannot measured- - 57
Mikhhail Fradkov2 decades - 58
Mikhail Kasianovnot measured- - 59
Yakov Sverdlovnot measured- - 60
Dmitry Yazovnot measured- - 61
Anatoly Chubaisnot measured- - 62
Sergei Kirienkonot measured- - 63
Andrei Belousovnot measured- - 64
Boris Shaposhnikovnot measured- - 65
Sergej Naryškinnot measured- - 66
Alexander Rutskoynot measured- - 67
Alexey Stakhanovnot measured- - 68
Gennady Yanayevnot measured- - 69
Sergei Ivanovnot measured- - 70
Anatoly Sobchaknot measured- - 71
Vladislav Surkovnot measured- - 72
Alexander Bortnikovnot measured- - 73
Ivan Kozhedubnot measured- - 74
Kirsan Ilyumzhinovnot measured- - 75
Sergey Sobyaninnot measured- - 76
Roman Shukhevychnot measured- - 77
Sergei Mironovnot measured- - 78
Nikolay Aleksandrovich Tikhonovnot measured- - 79
Igor Sechinnot measured- - 80
Viktor Medvedchuknot measured- - 81
Valeriya Novodvorskayanot measured- - 82
Alexander Lebednot measured- - 83Omar Dokkanot measured-
- 84
Dmitry Rogozinnot measured- - 85
Sergo Ordzhonikidze10 decades - 86
Svetlana Savitskaya4 decades - 87
Vladimir Potaninnot measured- - 88
Vyacheslav Volodinnot measured- - 89
Mintimer Şäymiefnot measured- - 90
Nikolai Ryzhkovnot measured- - 91
Boris Shcherbinanot measured- - 92
Grigory Yavlinskynot measured- - 93
Oleg Gordievskynot measured- - 94
Aleksei Antonovnot measured- - 95
Rodion Malinovsky6 decades - 96
Vladimir Kryuchkovnot measured- - 97
Andrei Zhdanov9 decades - 98
Irina Khakamadanot measured- - 99
Vasily Blyukhernot measured- - 100
Nikolay Gerasimovich Kuznetsovnot 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.