← 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 English books during the 21st century, whenever they lived.
- 1
Jesus102 - 2
Aristotle13 - 3
Plato11 - 4
Socrates6.5 - 5
Homer5.4 - 6
Cicero4.2 - 7
Augustus4.1 - 8
Johns Hopkins4.0 - 9
Virgil3.3 - 10
George Washington3.0 - 11
George W. Bush2.2 - 12
Ovid2.2 - 13
Plutarch1.9 - 14
Thomas Jefferson1.9 - 15
Cleopatra1.9 - 16
Abraham Lincoln1.9 - 17
Galen1.8 - 18
Saddam Hussein1.7 - 19
Ronald Reagan1.7 - 20
Herodotus1.6 - 21
Origen1.5 - 22
John the Baptist1.5 - 23
Bill Clinton1.5 - 24
Adam Smith1.4 - 25
Mark Twain1.4
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 - 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
Scarlett Johansson2 decades - 2
Leonardo DiCaprio3 decades - 3
Angelina Jolie2 decades - 4
Zendaya0 decades - 5
Jennifer Lawrence1 decades - 6
Matt Damon3 decades - 7
Natalie Portman2 decades - 8
Chris Pratt0 decades - 9
Jennifer Aniston2 decades - 10
Ben Affleck2 decades - 11
Bradley Cooper1 decades - 12
Julia Roberts3 decades - 13
Emma Stone1 decades - 14
Kim Kardashian1 decades - 15
Cameron Diaz3 decades - 16
John Cena1 decades - 17
Gwyneth Paltrow3 decades - 18
Will Smith3 decades - 19
Jessica Alba2 decades - 20
Winona Ryder3 decades - 21
Adam Sandler2 decades - 22
Mark Wahlberg2 decades - 23
Matthew McConaughey2 decades - 24
Megan Fox1 decades - 25
Uma Thurman3 decades - 26
Robert Downey Jr.2 decades - 27
Jason Bateman0 decades - 28
Reese Witherspoon2 decades - 29
Mila Kunis0 decades - 30
Kirsten Dunst2 decades - 31
Sydney Sweeneynot measured- - 32
Kate Hudson2 decades - 33
Mia Khalifanot measured- - 34
Charlie Sheen3 decades - 35
Shia LaBeouf0 decades - 36
Halle Berry3 decades - 37
Drew Barrymore3 decades - 38
Zoe Saldañanot measured- - 39
Chris Evansnot measured- - 40
Dakota Johnsonnot measured- - 41
Gillian Anderson3 decades - 42
Hilary Duff1 decades - 43
Macaulay Culkinnot measured- - 44
Kristen Stewart1 decades - 45
Amanda Seyfried0 decades - 46
Dakota Fanningnot measured- - 47
Lindsay Lohan2 decades - 48
Renée Zellweger0 decades - 49
Philip Seymour Hoffman2 decades - 50
Paul Walkernot measured- - 51
Jeremy Renner0 decades - 52
Joaquin Phoenix2 decades - 53
Jenna Orteganot measured- - 54
Jake Gyllenhaal2 decades - 55
Blake Lively0 decades - 56
Jennifer Connelly1 decades - 57
Jason Momoa0 decades - 58
Jared Leto0 decades - 59
Ben Stiller3 decades - 60
Ethan Hawke3 decades - 61
Meghan, Duchess of Sussexnot measured- - 62
Adrien Brody1 decades - 63
Hailee Steinfeld0 decades - 64
Zac Efron1 decades - 65
Matthew Perrynot measured- - 66
Edward Snowden1 decades - 67
Jennifer Garner1 decades - 68
Rami Malek0 decades - 69
Josh Duhamel0 decades - 70
Vin Diesel2 decades - 71
Brendan Fraser1 decades - 72
Jack Black2 decades - 73
Ewan McGregor3 decades - 74
Amy Adams1 decades - 75
Kristen Bell0 decades - 76
Milla Jovovich0 decades - 77
James Franco1 decades - 78
Hayden Panettiere0 decades - 79
Olivia Wilde0 decades - 80
Emmy Rossum0 decades - 81
Paris Hilton2 decades - 82
Eva Mendes0 decades - 83
Kaley Cuoco0 decades - 84
Ashton Kutcher2 decades - 85
Mark Ruffalo0 decades - 86
Edward Norton2 decades - 87
Eva Longoria1 decades - 88
Claire Danes2 decades - 89
Elizabeth Olsennot measured- - 90
Elle Fanning0 decades - 91
Amber Heard0 decades - 92
Peter Dinklage0 decades - 93
Alexandra Daddario0 decades - 94
Brittany Murphy0 decades - 95
Liv Tyler1 decades - 96
Sarah Jessica Parker3 decades - 97
Anna Kendrick0 decades - 98
Owen Wilsonnot measured- - 99
Tobey Maguire1 decades - 100
Brie Larsonnot 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.