← 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 Italian books during the 21st century, whenever they lived.
- 1
Caravaggio5.9 - 2
Giotto3.6 - 3
Benedetto Croce2.8 - 4
Silvio Berlusconi2.7 - 5
Leonardo da Vinci2.6 - 6
Antonio da Correggio2.5 - 7
Giordano Bruno2.2 - 8
Dante Alighieri2.2 - 9
Aldo Moro1.9 - 10
Donatello1.9 - 11
Donato Bramante1.7 - 12
Francis of Assisi1.7 - 13
Leon Battista Alberti1.6 - 14
Charles Borromeo1.5 - 15
Giacomo Leopardi1.5 - 16
Italo Calvino1.4 - 17
Pier Paolo Pasolini1.4 - 18
Giuseppe Verdi1.3 - 19
Benito Mussolini1.3 - 20
Pietro Perugino1.3 - 21
Primo Levi1.2 - 22
Marco Polo1.2 - 23
Tintoretto1.2 - 24
Piero della Francesca1.2 - 25
Umberto Eco1.2
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
J. K. Rowling2 decades - 2
Bear Grylls1 decades - 3
Milo Yiannopoulos0 decades - 4
Gavin McInnes0 decades - 5
Zadie Smith2 decades - 6
Alex Garlandnot measured- - 7
Mark Fishernot measured- - 8
Douglas Murraynot measured- - 9
China Miévillenot measured- - 10
Pippa Middletonnot measured- - 11
Jojo Moyesnot measured- - 12
Simon Sebag Montefiorenot measured- - 13
Dan Housernot measured- - 14
Joe Abercrombienot measured- - 15
Simon Kinbergnot measured- - 16
Sam Housernot measured- - 17
William Dalrymplenot measured- - 18
Caitlin Morannot measured- - 19
Derren Brownnot measured- - 20
Alice Osemannot measured- - 21
Philip Reeve0 decades - 22
Sophie Kinsella0 decades - 23
Jade Goodynot measured- - 24
Matt Haignot measured- - 25
Rachel Cusknot 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.