The Most Famous People from Iraq
Top 19 of 19 ranked · August 2026 · See today's live standing →
First issue under methodology v5.62. Movement begins with the next issue frozen under the same version.
Saddam still leads Iraq by eleven points, with his family filling the list
iFAMOUS Editorial Desk · 1 min read
Two decades after his execution, the former president tops Iraq's origin list for August 2026 ahead of the youngest prime minister in the country's history.
Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq from 1979 until his overthrow in 2003, is the most famous person from Iraq in August 2026 with a score of 19.7. The gap to second place is almost eleven points. Ali Falih Al-Zaidi, the banker who became the country's youngest prime minister at 41 when he was sworn in on May 14, 2026, scores 8.9, and the long shadow behind those two numbers is the whole story of the list.
The engine measures 19 people from Iraq, 17 of them living. The only other dead name is Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, Saddam's information minister, at tenth.
The present government is well represented. Nizar Amidi, president since April 2026, is fourth at 7.1, level with Masoud Barzani, who has led the Kurdistan Democratic Party since 1979. Muqtada al-Sadr, the cleric who leads the Sadrist Movement, is fifth. Nouri al-Maliki, prime minister from 2006 to 2014, is sixth, and Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani, prime minister since October 2022, seventh. Aymen Hussein, the striker who is among the most prolific scorers in the national team's modern history, is eighth and the only athlete.
Then the family returns. Sajida Talfah, Saddam's widow and first cousin, is ninth. Raghad Hussein and Rana Hussein, his eldest daughters, are eleventh and twelfth. Samira Shahbandar, his second wife, is fourteenth. Latif Yahia, the former army captain and author, is fifteenth. The ranking measures worldwide fame, not merit, and Iraq's attention is still organised around one man and the household he left.
| Rank | Name | Score | Live |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Saddam Hussein politician | 19.7 | iFANN → |
| 2 |  Ali Falih Al-Zaidi celebrityAlive | 8.9 | iFANN → |
| 3 |  Masoud Barzani politicianAlive | 7.1 | iFANN → |
| 4 |  Nizar Amidi politicianAlive | 7.1 | iFANN → |
| 5 |  Muqtada al-Sadr politicianAlive | 6.8 | iFANN → |
| 6 |  Nouri al-Maliki politicianAlive | 6.1 | iFANN → |
| 7 |  Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani politicianAlive | 5.9 | iFANN → |
| 8 |  Aymen Hussein celebrityAlive | 5.8 | iFANN → |
| 9 |  Sajida Talfah politicianAlive | 5.5 | iFANN → |
| 10 |  Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf politician | 4.8 | iFANN → |
| 11 |  Raghad Hussein politicianAlive | 4.8 | iFANN → |
| 12 |  Rana Hussein celebrityAlive | 4.3 | iFANN → |
| 13 |  Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer politicianAlive | 3.8 | iFANN → |
| 14 |  Samira Shahbandar celebrityAlive | 3.4 | iFANN → |
| 15 |  Latif Yahia celebrityAlive | 3.0 | iFANN → |
| 16 |  Hala Hussein celebrityAlive | 2.7 | iFANN → |
| 17 |  Rauf Rashid Abd al-Rahman public figureAlive | 2.0 | iFANN → |
| 18 |  Huda Hussein celebrityAlive | 0.7 | iFANN → |
| 19 |  Farhan Shakor celebrityAlive | 0.2 | iFANN → |
About this list
This list ranks people from Iraq by their overall worldwide fame rather than local attention, as assessed for August 2026: the top 19 of 19 names, frozen as the permanent record of that edition. This is the standard reading: everyone, living or dead, on one scale. 17 of the 19 listed are living; the Alive reading restricts the same ranking to living people.
Saddam Hussein is No. 1 on this list for August 2026. Behind Saddam Hussein come Ali Falih Al-Zaidi and Masoud Barzani.
What famous means here
Fame, in iFAMOUS, is how widely the world knows a name: how recognisable a person's name, face or work is, and how well people know who they are. It is assessed from extensive historical and current public data, some of it reaching back more than twenty years, and it is not merit, talent, importance or popularity on iFANN. The rankings model real-world global fame, not internet fame; the data is the instrument, not the subject. Activity on iFANN itself is excluded.
The month in the title is the date of this edition, not the period measured. The list is a snapshot of overall fame as it stood when the issue was frozen: a name does not lose its place because one month was quiet, and a trending moment alone does not put a name here. Trending attention is published separately on ifann.net.
How the list was ranked
The iFANN Global Fame Rankings combine worldwide Wikipedia readership across languages, worldwide news coverage and search interest anchored against stable reference names, with search history reaching back to 2004. A twelve-month baseline sits behind the current reading and short-lived surges are capped, so the list reflects durable recognition rather than one week of headlines. Rankings are computed daily on ifann.net and frozen on the second day of the following month as that month's issue; a published issue never changes.
About Iraq
Iraq is one of the countries and regions the journal ranks every month. Country lists use the same rankings and the same scale as The 100, so a name can be compared with its neighbours and against the world.
Powered by iFANN
iFAMOUS is published by iFANN and powered by the iFANN Global Fame Rankings v5.62. Today's live standing for this list is on ifann.net; the journal freezes it once a month so it can be cited permanently.
Related searches: most famous people in Iraq 2026, top celebrities in Iraq August 2026, Iraq fame ranking, most famous person in Iraq.
"Saddam Hussein, No. 1 on The Most Famous People from Iraq", iFAMOUS No. 1 (August 2026), ifamous.org