← 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 Spanish books during the 21st century, whenever they lived.
- 1
Fidel Castro4.1 - 2
Lope de Vega4.1 - 3
Francis Xavier4.0 - 4
Simón Bolívar3.3 - 5
Octavio Paz3.1 - 6
John of God2.9 - 7
Vicente Fox2.8 - 8
Benito Juárez2.7 - 9
Porfirio Díaz2.6 - 10
Rubén Darío2.5 - 11
Andrés Bello2.4 - 12
Hugo Chávez2.1 - 13
Antonio Machado2.0 - 14
Miguel de Cervantes2.0 - 15
Christopher Columbus1.9 - 16
Jorge Luis Borges1.9 - 17
Pablo Neruda1.8 - 18
Hernán Cortés1.8 - 19
Juan Ramón Jiménez1.7 - 20
Federico García Lorca1.6 - 21
Carlos Fuentes1.5 - 22
Felipe González1.5 - 23
Che Guevara1.5 - 24
Salvador Allende1.3 - 25
Miguel de Unamuno1.3
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 - 10
Adolf 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 - 26
Leonardo DiCaprio94.8M - 27
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon93.1M - 28
Scarlett Johansson91.8M - 29
Johnny Depp91.3M - 30
George VI90.5M - 31
Stephen Hawking89.9M - 32
Diana, Princess of Wales89.7M - 33
Ted Bundy88.3M - 34
Tom Brady87.9M - 35
Eminem86.9M - 36
Arnold Schwarzenegger86.9M - 37
Kobe Bryant86.4M - 38
Kylian Mbappé85.4M - 39
Ryan Reynolds84.7M - 40
John F. Kennedy83.8M - 41
Lady Gaga83.7M - 42
Melania Trump83.2M - 43
Albert Einstein83.2M - 44
XXXTentacion82.8M - 45
Zendaya82.7M - 46
Clint Eastwood81.1M - 47
Billie Eilish80.3M - 48
Jeff Bezos79.7M - 49
Jason Momoa79.2M - 50
Winston Churchill79.1M - 51
Jennifer Aniston79M - 52
Sylvester Stallone78.9M - 53
Joseph Stalin78.7M - 54
Muhammad Ali78.1M - 55
Kim Kardashian77.1M - 56
Steve Jobs76.7M - 57
Kanye West75.9M - 58
Cleopatra75.7M - 59
O. J. Simpson75.5M - 60
Marilyn Monroe75.4M - 61
Mahatma Gandhi75.2M - 62
David Bowie74.8M - 63
Brad Pitt73.7M - 64
Tupac Shakur73.3M - 65
Napoleon73.3M - 66
Conor McGregor73.3M - 67
Angelina Jolie72.8M - 68
Jennifer Lopez72M - 69
Jimmy Carter71.9M - 70
Margot Robbie71.6M - 71
Edward VIII71.5M - 72
Abraham Lincoln70.4M - 73
Charles Manson70M - 74
Justin Bieber69.7M - 75
Dua Lipa69.6M - 76
Amber Heard69.5M - 77
Ronald Reagan69.4M - 78
Novak Djokovic69.3M - 79
Millie Bobby Brown69.2M - 80
Charles IIInot measured68.8M - 81
Jennifer Lawrence68.7M - 82
Blake Lively68.6M - 83
Mia Khalifanot measured68.6M - 84
Shakira68M - 85
Heath Ledger67.9M - 86
Timothée Chalamet67.4M - 87
Selena Gomez67.4M - 88
Robin Williams67.3M - 89
Rihanna66.8M - 90
Mike Tyson66.8M - 91
Tom Hardy66.5M - 92
J. Robert Oppenheimer66.4M - 93
John Cena65.9M - 94
Xi Jinping65.7M - 95
Rafael Nadal65.7M - 96
Tom Hanks65.5M - 97
Dolly Parton64.7M - 98
Ryan Gosling64.6M - 99
Beyoncé64.5M - 100
Pope Francisnot measured64.4M
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 21st century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1Scarlett Johansson2 decades
- 2Leonardo DiCaprio3 decades
- 3
Tom Hollandnot measured- - 4Angelina Jolie2 decades
- 5
Nicole Kidman3 decades - 6
Charlize Theron2 decades - 7Zendaya0 decades
- 8Jennifer Lawrence1 decades
- 9
Matt Damon3 decades - 10
Natalie Portman2 decades - 11Dwayne Johnson1 decades
- 12
Chris Pratt0 decades - 13
Emma Watson1 decades - 14Jennifer Aniston2 decades
- 15Heath Ledger2 decades
- 16
Pamela Anderson3 decades - 17
Ben Affleck2 decades - 18
Bradley Cooper1 decades - 19
Julia Roberts3 decades - 20
Emma Stone1 decades - 21Kim Kardashian1 decades
- 22
Cameron Diaz3 decades - 23John Cena1 decades
- 24
Kate Winslet3 decades - 25
Andrew Garfield0 decades
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.