← 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
Lewis Hamilton1 decades - 2
Michael Schumacher3 decades - 3
Max Verstappen0 decades - 4
Tiger Woods3 decades - 5
Mike Tyson4 decades - 6
Conor McGregor0 decades - 7
Fernando Alonsonot measured- - 8
Virat Kohli1 decades - 9
Khabib Nurmagomedovnot measured- - 10
Usain Bolt1 decades - 11
Sachin Tendulkar3 decades - 12
Charles Leclercnot measured- - 13
Lando Norrisnot measured- - 14
Lindsey Vonn0 decades - 15
Felix Baumgartner1 decades - 16
Tom Brady2 decades - 17
Manny Pacquiao1 decades - 18
Michael Phelps2 decades - 19
Lance Armstrong2 decades - 20
Sebastian Vettel1 decades - 21
Roman Reigns0 decades - 22
Wladimir Klitschko0 decades - 23
Floyd Mayweather1 decades - 24
The Undertakernot measured- - 25
Simone Biles0 decades - 26
Tadej Pogačarnot measured- - 27
Valentino Rossi3 decades - 28
Triple H2 decades - 29
Brock Lesnar0 decades - 30
Ronda Rousey0 decades - 31
Andrea Kimi Antonellinot measured- - 32
Kimi Räikkönen0 decades - 33
Vitali Klitschko2 decades - 34
Carlos Sainz Jr.not measured- - 35
Rey Mysterio0 decades - 36
Oscar Piastrinot measured- - 37
Sergio Péreznot measured- - 38
Daniel Ricciardo0 decades - 39
Oleksandr Usyknot measured- - 40
Ronnie O'Sullivan0 decades - 41
Alexander Ovechkin1 decades - 42
Randy Orton0 decades - 43
CM Punk0 decades - 44
Nico Hülkenbergnot measured- - 45
Oscar Pistorius1 decades - 46
Anthony Joshua0 decades - 47
Nico Rosberg0 decades - 48
George Russellnot measured- - 49
Tyson Fury0 decades - 50
Jules Bianchi0 decades - 51
Chris Benoit0 decades - 52
Laura Dahlmeiernot measured- - 53
Marc Márquez0 decades - 54
Tara Lipinskinot measured- - 55
Ichiro Suzuki0 decades - 56
Eileen Gunot measured- - 57
Mahendra Singh Dhoni0 decades - 58
Jenson Button0 decades - 59
Valtteri Bottas0 decades - 60
Alina Kabaeva2 decades - 61
Ralf Schumacher1 decades - 62
Jacques Villeneuve2 decades - 63
Kanenot measured- - 64
Peyton Manning2 decades - 65
Lance Strollnot measured- - 66
Shawn Michaels1 decades - 67
Eliud Kipchoge0 decades - 68
Sidney Crosby1 decades - 69
Armand Duplantisnot measured- - 70
Tony Hawk2 decades - 71
The Great Khali0 decades - 72
Chris Jericho0 decades - 73
Jeff Hardynot measured- - 74
Shohei Ohtaninot measured- - 75
Daniil Kvyat0 decades - 76
Yuki Tsunodanot measured- - 77
Kurt Angle0 decades - 78
Cody Rhodes0 decades - 79
Jeff Gordon3 decades - 80
Stephanie McMahon0 decades - 81
Tonya Harding3 decades - 82
Mick Schumachernot measured- - 83
Mika Häkkinen0 decades - 84
Alexander Albonnot measured- - 85
Pierre Gaslynot measured- - 86
Chynanot measured- - 87
Paul Wightnot measured- - 88
Edgenot measured- - 89
Johannes Høsflot Klæbonot measured- - 90
Romain Grosjean0 decades - 91
Esteban Oconnot measured- - 92
Juan Pablo Montoya1 decades - 93
David Coulthard0 decades - 94
Rory McIlroynot measured- - 95
Bray Wyatt0 decades - 96
Robert Kubica0 decades - 97
Mario Lemieux3 decades - 98
Shane Warne2 decades - 99
Yuzuru Hanyūnot measured- - 100
Mark Webbernot 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.