Google Fame

“Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me” .....

 

Kenneth Williams as Julius Caesar

 

Kenneth Williams as Julius Caesar in “Carry on Cleo” … So who is the most Famous or Infamous character or person who has ever lived?

 

Until now there was no way of knowing, but thanks to Google we can have a stab at it. So in the interests of science, and because I was bored, I have “Googled” a few names, and placed them in order of possible hits on a Google search.

First some ground rules …..

• If you want to play this game you have to use full names (to exclude companies who capitalise on a famous surname) e.g. “William Shakespeare” not “Shakespeare”, and put names in “quotes” to exclude casual reference hits.. Exception is for single named religious leaders, and some dictators such as Stalin, Hitler etc, as it’s safe to assume that these names are not used often by companies etc.
• I have used English spelling and language fonts, so for instance Mustapha Ataturk (founder of modern Turkey) gets 2,270,000 hits. But using Turkish spellings e.g. Atatürk: gets 18,100,000 hits. However this applies to everyone in one way or another, so you must use a consistent lettering / language fonts and spelling to get relative values.
• Misspelling names will find extra hits, but these don’t count as there are no ways of predicting all the ways a name can be incorrectly spelt.
• Obviously I have used Anglo fame for my list, but anyone  from any country counts e.g. Spanish or Chinese or Turkish people.
• I have excluded all recent politicians i.e. within last 30 years (after web media developed), because their hits would be based upon recent media coverage on the web, rather than any true fame… so sadly no Nelson Mandela. But allowed recent sports and entertainment figures as they have real fame.
  
• I am not familiar with US sports stars, so there may be many pre internet stars who would rank highly on a hits list, but probably not outside the US & Canada.
• Some results include people of same name e.g. Jesus & Mohammed are popular first names around the world, so non religious site references will be included in their scores.
  
• Finally, I split the results into Fictional and Non Fictional because “Batman” scored so high
  
  Non Fictional
  1. Jesus: 140,000,000 for "Jesus Christ"
  2. Hitler: 37,000,000 for "Hitler"
  3. Mao: 25,500,000 for "Mao"
  4. Napoleon: 24,800,000 for "Napoleon"
  5. Mohammed: 24,000,000 for "Mohammed"
  6. The Buddha: 22,600,000 for Buddha (He has several name spellings which confuses searches)
  7. Stalin: 13,300,000 for "Stalin"
  8. George Washington: 13,300,000 for "George Washington"
  9. Lenin: 12,100,000 for "Lenin"
  10. Mussolini: 6,690,000 for "Mussolini"
  11. Elvis Presley: 4,150,000 for "Elvis Presley"
  12. Brad Pitt: 3,550,000 for "Brad Pitt"
  13. Tiger Woods: 3,390,000 for “Tiger Woods”
  14. David Beckham: 3,200,000 for "David Beckham"
  15. Jimi Hendrix: 3,160,000 for "Jimi Hendrix"
  16. Marilyn Monroe: 3,150,000 for "Marilyn Monroe"
  17. John Lennon: 3,140,000 for "John Lennon"
  18. Harrison Ford: 2,750,000 for "Harrison Ford"
  19. Caligula: 2,680,000 for "Caligula"
  20. Ghandi: 2,650,000 for "Ghandi”
  21. John Wayne: 2,590,000 for "John Wayne"
  22. Karl Marx: 2,410,000 for "Karl Marx"
  23. William Shakespeare: 2,370,000 for "William Shakespeare"
  24. Abraham Lincoln: 2,340,000 for "Abraham Lincoln"
  25. Ataturk: 2,270,000 for "Ataturk"
  26. Ludwig van Beethoven: 2,180,000 for "Ludwig van Beethoven" ("Beethoven" gets 22,000,000 hits)
  27. Charlie Chaplin: 2,100,000 for "Charlie Chaplin"
  28. Winston Churchill: 2,040,000 for "Winston Churchill"
  29. Julius Caesar: 1,850,000 for "Julius Caesar"
  30. Saladin: 1,740,000 for "Saladin"
  31. Paul McCartney: 1,690,000 for "Paul McCartney"
  32. Babe Ruth: 1,600,000 for "Babe Ruth"
  33. El Cid: 1,500,000 for "El Cid"
  34. Queen Victoria: 1,380,000 for "Queen Victoria"
  35. Marie Curie: 1,370,000 for "Marie Curie"
  36. Pope John Paul II: 1,350,000 for "Pope John Paul II"
  37. Simon Bolivar: 1,320,000 for "Simon Bolivar"
  38. Franklin Roosevelt: 1,300,000 for "Franklin Roosevelt".
  39. Jack Nicklaus: 1,310,000 for "Jack Nicklaus"
  40. Clark Gable: 1,230,000 for "Clark Gable"
  41. Florence Nightingale: 1,080,000 for "Florence Nightingale"
  42. Spencer Tracy: 1,010,000 for "Spencer Tracy"
  43. George Best: 1,060,000 for “George Best”
  44. Lord Nelson: 970,000 for “Lord Nelson”
  45. Peter the Great: 947,000 for "Peter the Great"
  46. Mohammed Ali: 892,000 for "Mohammed Ali"
  47. Pele: 841,000 for "Pele" (+ “Football” to exclude a goddess called Pele)
  48. Leon Trotsky: 771,000 for "Leon Trotsky"
  49. Haile Selassie: 706,000 for "Haile Selassie"
  50. Laurel & Hardy: 690,000 for "Laurel & Hardy"
  51. Duke of Wellington: 649,000 for "Duke of Wellington"
  52. Anton Chekhov: 622,000 for "Anton Chekhov"
  53. General Franco: 594,000 for "General Franco"
  54. Catherine the Great: 593,000 for "Catherine the Great"
  55. Giuseppe Garibaldi: 538,000 for "Giuseppe Garibaldi"
  56. George Patton: 411,000 for "George Patton".
  57. Alfred the Great: 336,000 for "Alfred the Great"
  58. Kubla Khan: 241,000 for "Kubla Khan"
  59. Ghengis Khan: 143,000 for "Ghengis Khan"
  60. Wolfgang Mozart: 119,000 for "Wolfgang Mozart" (Mozart gets 39,000,000 hits but not all the famous one).
  
  Fictional
  1. Batman: 40,700,000 for "Batman"
  2. Superman: 32,200,000 for "Superman"
  3. Spiderman: 17,100,000 for "Spiderman"
  4. Dracula: 13,500,000 for "Dracula"
  5. Aladdin: 13,500,000 for "Aladdin"
  6. Frankenstein: 11,900,000 for "Frankenstein"
  7. TinTin: 5,480,000 for "TinTin"
  8. Robin Hood: 2,930,000 for "Robin Hood"
  9. Sinbad: 2,710,000 for "Sinbad"
  10. Sherlock Holmes: 1,720,000 for “Sherlock Holmes”
  11. Homer Simpson: 1,500,000 for "Homer Simpson”
  
  A few interesting facts emerge from this list, and I admit it’s not extensive, or by any means definitive:
• I found it very hard to think of many 'famous' (as opposed to celebrity) women.
• How being infamous gets you more fame as a rule than being good.
• How this list can just keep growing as you think of someone else…..