← 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 French books during the 21st century, whenever they lived.
- 1
Voltaire18 - 2
Louis XIV of France11 - 3
Molière8.1 - 4
Victor Hugo7.1 - 5
Montesquieu6.4 - 6
Stendhal6.2 - 7
Jacques Chirac5.5 - 8
François Mitterrand5.5 - 9
Nicolas Sarkozy5.0 - 10
Louis XVI of France4.6 - 11
Louis XV of France4.4 - 12
Napoleon III3.4 - 13
George Sand3.2 - 14
Joan of Arc3.1 - 15
Jules Verne2.7 - 16
Georges Pompidou2.4 - 17
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor2.3 - 18
Michel Foucault2.3 - 19
François Fénelon2.2 - 20
Marcel Proust2.2 - 21
Lionel Jospin2.2 - 22
Marie Antoinette2.1 - 23
Pierre Bourdieu2.1 - 24
Roland Barthes2.0 - 25
Charles de Gaulle2.0
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
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 21st century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Priyanka Chopra0 decades - 2
Shah Rukh Khan2 decades - 3
Salman Khan2 decades - 4
Aamir Khan2 decades - 5
Virat Kohli1 decades - 6
Sachin Tendulkar3 decades - 7
Akshay Kumarnot measured- - 8
Deepika Padukone0 decades - 9
Hrithik Roshan0 decades - 10
Preity Zinta0 decades - 11
Anushka Sharma0 decades - 12
Saif Ali Khan0 decades - 13
Kajol2 decades - 14
Rahul Gandhi1 decades - 15
Rani Mukerji0 decades - 16
Shraddha Kapoor0 decades - 17
Tamannaah Bhatianot measured- - 18
Irrfan Khan0 decades - 19
Gukesh Dnot measured- - 20
Ajay Devgn0 decades - 21
Ranbir Kapoor0 decades - 22
A. R. Rahman0 decades - 23
Ranveer Singhnot measured- - 24
Karisma Kapoor0 decades - 25
Madhuri Dixit0 decades - 26
Shahid Kapoor0 decades - 27
Abhishek Bachchan0 decades - 28
Prabhasnot measured- - 29
Freida Pinto0 decades - 30
Aishwarya Rai2 decades - 31
Satya Nadella0 decades - 32
Kriti Sanonnot measured- - 33
Kiara Advaninot measured- - 34
Pooja Hegdenot measured- - 35
Anushka Shettynot measured- - 36
Mahendra Singh Dhoni0 decades - 37
Kareena Kapoor0 decades - 38
Shilpa Shetty0 decades - 39
Shruti Haasannot measured- - 40
Samantha Ruth Prabhunot measured- - 41
Kajal Aggarwalnot measured- - 42
Tabunot measured- - 43
C. Joseph Vijaynot measured- - 44
Shreya Ghoshal0 decades - 45
Viswanathan Anand0 decades - 46
Yami Gautamnot measured- - 47
Sonakshi Sinha0 decades - 48
Bipasha Basu0 decades - 49
Disha Pataninot measured- - 50
Sushmita Sen0 decades - 51
Sania Mirza0 decades - 52
Kangana Ranaut0 decades - 53
Sunil Chhetri0 decades - 54
The Great Khali0 decades - 55
Vidya Balan0 decades - 56
Raveena Tandon0 decades - 57
Lara Dutta0 decades - 58
Karan Johar0 decades - 59
Sushant Singh Rajput0 decades - 60
Varun Dhawan0 decades - 61
Nayanthara0 decades - 62
Juhi Chawla0 decades - 63
Rashmika Mandannanot measured- - 64
Sidharth Malhotranot measured- - 65
Allu Arjunnot measured- - 66
Trisha Krishnannot measured- - 67
John Abrahamnot measured- - 68
Genelia D'Souzanot measured- - 69
Ileana D'Cruznot measured- - 70
Ram Charannot measured- - 71
Esha Deol0 decades - 72
Tiger Shroffnot measured- - 73
Emraan Hashmi0 decades - 74
Dhanushnot measured- - 75
Akshaye Khannanot measured- - 76
Sonam Kapoor0 decades - 77
Parineeti Chopra0 decades - 78
Ananya Pandaynot measured- - 79
Mallika Sherawat0 decades - 80
Dia Mirza0 decades - 81
Ameesha Patel0 decades - 82
Neeraj Chopra0 decades - 83
Pusarla Venkata Sindhunot measured- - 84
Malaika Arora0 decades - 85
Janhvi Kapoornot measured- - 86
Asinnot measured- - 87
Rohit Sharmanot measured- - 88
Farah Khan0 decades - 89
Amrita Rao0 decades - 90
R. Madhavannot measured- - 91
Mahesh Babunot measured- - 92
Zubeen Gargnot measured- - 93
Twinkle Khanna0 decades - 94
Sonali Bendre0 decades - 95
Farhan Akhtar0 decades - 96
Shriya Saran0 decades - 97
Aditi Rao Hydarinot measured- - 98
Arjun Rampalnot measured- - 99
Yogi Adityanathnot measured- - 100
Jennifer Wingetnot 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.