← 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
Noam Chomsky6 decades - 2
Hannah Arendt8 decades - 3
John Forbes Nash Jr.0 decades - 4
Milton Friedman9 decades - 5
Billy Graham7 decades - 6
Katherine Johnsonnot measured- - 7
Jeffrey Sachs4 decades - 8
W. E. B. Du Bois12 decades - 9
Kurt Gödel5 decades - 10
Dian Fossey4 decades - 11
Judith Butler3 decades - 12
Bernie Madoff2 decades - 13
Alan Greenspan5 decades - 14
Theodor W. Adorno8 decades - 15
Janet Yellen2 decades - 16
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.0 decades - 17
Sonia Sotomayor1 decades - 18
Paul Krugman4 decades - 19
Margaret Hamiltonnot measured- - 20
Edward Said4 decades - 21
Claude Shannon6 decades - 22
B. F. Skinner5 decades - 23
James Comey1 decades - 24
Francis Fukuyama4 decades - 25
Abraham Maslow6 decades - 26
Margaret Mead10 decades - 27
Ben Bernanke2 decades - 28
John Rawls5 decades - 29
Marvin Minsky4 decades - 30
Steven Pinker3 decades - 31
Ludwig von Mises8 decades - 32
Jennifer Doudna0 decades - 33
Daniel Dennett3 decades - 34
Antonin Scalia5 decades - 35
Joseph Stiglitz3 decades - 36
Carl Rogers8 decades - 37
Thomas Sowellnot measured- - 38
Peter Drucker6 decades - 39
Samuel P. Huntington6 decades - 40
Joseph Schumpeter11 decades - 41
David Graeber1 decades - 42
Norbert Wiener10 decades - 43
John Mearsheimernot measured- - 44
William James Sidisnot measured- - 45
Elinor Ostrom4 decades - 46
Murray Rothbard4 decades - 47
Herbert A. Simon7 decades - 48
Samuel Alitonot measured- - 49
Paul Samuelson7 decades - 50
Stanislaw Ulam0 decades
- 51
Leo Strauss8 decades - 52
Robert Nozick5 decades - 53
Roman Jakobson8 decades - 54
Willard Van Orman Quine0 decades - 55
Gertrude B. Elion0 decades - 56
John Searle5 decades - 57
Elena Kagannot measured- - 58
Philip Zimbardo2 decades - 59
Hans Kelsen11 decades - 60
Kenneth Arrow6 decades - 61
Edward Thorndike2 decades - 62
Martha Nussbaumnot measured- - 63
Lawrence Lessig2 decades - 64
Gary S. Becker6 decades - 65
Ruth Benedict9 decades - 66
George Bernard Dantzignot measured- - 67
Richard Rorty4 decades - 68
Stephen Breyernot measured- - 69
Robert Solow6 decades - 70
Lawrence Summersnot measured- - 71
Robert K. Merton8 decades - 72
James M. Buchanan6 decades - 73
Robert Reichnot measured- - 74
Edward Sapir11 decades - 75
Gladys Westnot measured- - 76
Immanuel Wallersteinnot measured- - 77
Thomas Schelling6 decades - 78
Thomas Nagelnot measured- - 79
Daniel Ellsbergnot measured- - 80
W. Edwards Demingnot measured- - 81
Michael Porternot measured- - 82
Paul Ekmannot measured- - 83
Leon M. Lederman0 decades - 84
Ben Ferencznot measured- - 85Michael Rockefellernot measured-
- 86
Michael Sandelnot measured- - 87
Shing-Tung Yaunot measured- - 88
Emil Artinnot measured- - 89
Stanley Ann Dunhamnot measured- - 90
Cornel Westnot measured- - 91
Vernor Vingenot measured- - 92
Jim Simonsnot measured- - 93
Talcott Parsons9 decades - 94
Henry Murraynot measured- - 95
Jeremy Rifkinnot measured- - 96
Jody Williams2 decades - 97
Mary Jacksonnot measured- - 98
Michael Parentinot measured- - 99
Paul Berg5 decades - 100
Michael Kremernot 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.