← 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
Steven Spielberg5 decades - 2
Woody Allen6 decades - 3
Walt Disney10 decades - 4
Stanley Kubrick6 decades - 5
Quentin Tarantino3 decades - 6
David Lynch4 decades - 7
Martin Scorsese5 decades - 8
George Lucas6 decades - 9
Francis Ford Coppola5 decades - 10
Orson Welles9 decades - 11
Tim Burton3 decades - 12
Rob Reiner5 decades - 13
Buster Keaton10 decades - 14
Ted Turner5 decades - 15
Ron Howard5 decades - 16
David Fincher2 decades - 17
Oliver Stone4 decades - 18
Steven Soderbergh3 decades - 19
Spike Lee4 decades - 20
Bob Saget0 decades - 21
Kathryn Bigelow2 decades - 22
Sam Raimi3 decades - 23
Harvey Weinstein2 decades - 24
Elia Kazan8 decades - 25
Matt Groening3 decades - 26
John Fordnot measured- - 27
Billy Wilder8 decades - 28
Brian De Palma4 decades - 29
Sydney Pollack5 decades - 30
John Huston12 decades - 31
Nora Ephron5 decades - 32
Sidney Lumet6 decades - 33
John Carpenternot measured- - 34
Steve Bannon1 decades - 35
Michael Moore5 decades - 36
Jim Henson4 decades - 37
Joss Whedon2 decades - 38
Chris Columbus2 decades - 39
Wes Craven3 decades - 40
Jim Jarmusch3 decades - 41
Kris Jenner0 decades - 42
Robert Altman5 decades - 43
Miloš Forman0 decades - 44
Bob Fosse5 decades - 45
Terrence Malick2 decades - 46
Mike Nichols6 decades - 47
Aaron Sorkin2 decades - 48
Cecil B. DeMille10 decades - 49
Gus Van Sant3 decades - 50
John Cassavetes6 decades - 51
Richard Linklater2 decades - 52
Michael Mann5 decades - 53
Blake Edwards6 decades - 54
D. W. Griffith11 decades - 55
Jonathan Demme4 decades - 56
Vincente Minnelli6 decades - 57
Harold Ramisnot measured- - 58
George A. Romero2 decades - 59
Peter Bogdanovich5 decades - 60
William Wyler8 decades - 61
Joel Schumacher3 decades - 62
Ray Manzarek0 decades - 63
Frank Darabontnot measured- - 64
William Hannanot measured- - 65
Lee Strasbergnot measured- - 66
John Watersnot measured- - 67
William Friedkinnot measured- - 68
James Mangoldnot measured- - 69
John Landisnot measured- - 70
James L. Brooksnot measured- - 71
Sam Peckinpah5 decades - 72
John Lasseternot measured- - 73
Jerry Bruckheimernot measured- - 74
Joseph L. Mankiewicz6 decades - 75
Joseph Barbera0 decades - 76
Roger Cormannot measured- - 77
Howard Hawks7 decades - 78
Alexander Paynenot measured- - 79
Gore Verbinskinot measured- - 80
Ken Burnsnot measured- - 81
George Cukor9 decades - 82
Charlie Kaufmannot measured- - 83
Vincent Gallonot measured- - 84
Black Dahlianot measured- - 85
David O. Russellnot measured- - 86
Heather O'Rourkenot measured- - 87
Brad Birdnot measured- - 88
Richard Donnernot measured- - 89
Samuel Goldwyn10 decades - 90
Mike Judgenot measured- - 91
Robert Wise7 decades - 92
Andrei Konchalovsky0 decades - 93
Martha Graham9 decades - 94
Fred Zinnemann7 decades - 95
Kathleen Kennedynot measured- - 96
Renny Harlinnot measured- - 97
Louis B. Mayernot measured- - 98
Chuck Lorrenot measured- - 99
Cameron Crowenot measured- - 100
Nick Cassavetesnot 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.