← Fame through time2000-2099
The 21st century
Whose names filled the books of the 21st 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 German books during the 21st century, whenever they lived.
- 1
Thomas Mann8.5 - 2
Max Weber4.4 - 3
Novalis3.9 - 4
Karl Marx3.2 - 5
Jean Paul2.9 - 6
Martin Luther2.7 - 7
Adolf Hitler2.6 - 8
Richard Wagner2.1 - 9
Sigmund Freud2.0 - 10
Heinrich Heine1.9 - 11
Willy Brandt1.9 - 12
Walter Benjamin1.9 - 13
Paracelsus1.9 - 14
Friedrich Nietzsche1.9 - 15
Helmut Kohl1.8 - 16
Gerhard Schröder1.8 - 17
Hannah Arendt1.7 - 18
Immanuel Kant1.7 - 19
Jürgen Habermas1.7 - 20
Maria Theresa1.6 - 21
Heinrich Mann1.6 - 22
Carl Schmitt1.5 - 23
Bertolt Brecht1.5 - 24
Angela Merkel1.5 - 25
Franz Kafka1.4
Most read
Who people actually looked up in the 21st century, across every language edition we measure (2015-2026 only - readership is measured from July 2015).
- 1
Donald Trump336.3M - 2
Elizabeth II223.3M - 3
Cristiano Ronaldo211.6M - 4
Elon Musk207.7M - 5
Lionel Messi178.6M - 6
Vladimir Putin136.2M - 7
Joe Biden124M - 8
Freddie Mercury122.9M - 9
Jeffrey Dahmer120.3M - 10Adolf Hitler118.7M
- 11
Taylor Swift117.8M - 12
Barack Obama115.9M - 13
Michael Jackson114.4M - 14
Pablo Escobar114.4M - 15
Kamala Harris113.6M - 16
Dwayne Johnson111M - 17
Queen Victorianot measured105.6M - 18
Keanu Reeves103.4M - 19
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh102.1M - 20
Elvis Presley99.6M - 21
Tom Cruise99.4M - 22
LeBron James99.2M - 23
Jeffrey Epstein98.7M - 24
Michael Jordan98.4M - 25
Ariana Grande98M
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 21st century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1Lionel Messi1 decades
- 2Elon Musk1 decades
- 3Cristiano Ronaldo2 decades
- 4Taylor Swift1 decades
- 5
Shakira3 decades - 6
Lady Gaga1 decades - 7
Scarlett Johansson2 decades - 8Ariana Grande1 decades
- 9
Kylian Mbappé1 decades - 10
Leonardo DiCaprio3 decades - 11
Novak Djokovic1 decades - 12
Neymar1 decades - 13
Justin Trudeau1 decades - 14
Melania Trump1 decades - 15
Tom Hollandnot measured- - 16
Emmanuel Macronnot measured- - 17
Angelina Jolie2 decades - 18
Nicole Kidman3 decades - 19
Katy Perry1 decades - 20
Selena Gomez1 decades - 21LeBron James2 decades
- 22
Billie Eilish0 decades - 23
Charlize Theron2 decades - 24
Eminem2 decades - 25
Justin Bieber1 decades - 26
Rihanna2 decades - 27
Dua Lipa0 decades - 28
Lewis Hamilton1 decades - 29
Zendaya0 decades - 30
Zinedine Zidane3 decades - 31
David Beckham2 decades - 32
Miley Cyrus1 decades - 33
Jennifer Lawrence1 decades - 34
Christopher Nolan2 decades - 35
Matt Damon3 decades - 36
Jennifer Lopez3 decades - 37
Natalie Portman2 decades - 38Dwayne Johnson1 decades
- 39
Kanye West2 decades - 40
Lamine Yamalnot measured- - 41
Beyoncé2 decades - 42
Chris Pratt0 decades - 43
Giorgia Meloni2 decades - 44
Erling Haalandnot measured- - 45
Emma Watson1 decades - 46
Michael Schumacher3 decades - 47
Jennifer Aniston2 decades - 48
Heath Ledger2 decades - 49
Pamela Anderson3 decades - 50
Ben Affleck2 decades - 51
Bradley Cooper1 decades - 52
Julia Roberts3 decades - 53
Zlatan Ibrahimović0 decades - 54
Serena Williams2 decades - 55
Harry Kanenot measured- - 56
Kobe Bryant2 decades - 57
Rafael Nadal2 decades - 58
Emma Stone1 decades - 59
Kim Kardashian1 decades - 60
Bruno Mars1 decades - 61
Mark Zuckerberg1 decades - 62
Ronaldinho3 decades - 63
Cameron Diaz3 decades - 64
Amy Winehouse1 decades - 65
John Cena1 decades - 66
Kate Winslet3 decades - 67
Andrew Garfield0 decades - 68
Max Verstappen0 decades - 69
Gwyneth Paltrow3 decades - 70
Will Smith3 decades - 71
Mohamed Salahnot measured- - 72
Britney Spears2 decades - 73
Zohran Mamdaninot measured- - 74
Jason Statham0 decades - 75
Emily Blunt0 decades - 76
Mark Carney1 decades - 77
Roger Federer2 decades - 78
Priyanka Chopra0 decades - 79
Ryan Gosling1 decades - 80
Celine Dion1 decades - 81
Jessica Alba2 decades - 82
Keira Knightley2 decades - 83
Winona Ryder3 decades - 84
Adam Sandler2 decades - 85
Mariah Carey3 decades - 86
Charlie Kirknot measured- - 87
Ryan Reynolds1 decades - 88
Mark Wahlberg2 decades - 89
Matthew McConaughey2 decades - 90
Megan Fox1 decades - 91
Robert Pattinson1 decades - 92
J. K. Rowling2 decades - 93
Uma Thurman3 decades - 94
Hugh Jackman2 decades - 95
Robert Downey Jr.2 decades - 96
Thierry Henry2 decades - 97
Jason Bateman0 decades - 98
Andy Burnhamnot measured- - 99
Reese Witherspoon2 decades - 100
IShowSpeednot 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.