I was watching Jet Lag and there was a “Name 100 Women” challenge, so I tried it myself.

Conclusion: the world is still a hard place for women. Or, I have a skill issue in remembering names.

AI assisted: contains AI generated content.

Disclaimer: All of this is based on the website, which is in turn based on Wikidata (cutoff date unknown - probably today?), so if I got something wrong, it’s Wikidata.

Rules

The original post’s rules on Twitter, transcribed by Gemini 2.0 Flash:

Name 100 Women Challenge
  • Cannot use chat
  • Can be dead women
  • Can be streamers
  • Can be any version of their name (ex. Marilyn Monroe aka Norma Jean)
  • Spelling doesn’t count as long as your heart is in the right place
  • No family friends or ex girlfriend or neighbors or any of that they have to be googleable women/public figures
  • No fictional characters must be someone with real blood in their veins
  • No repeats
  • Timer starts as soon as you type first letter of first name, ends when you type last letter of last name
  • Must be typed out in a list labeled 1 - 100
  • Have to say their name not a description (ex Michelle Obama Good, Obamas Wife Bad)

glhf

I also made a rule to exclude idols & voice actors from Japan, because I know a lot.

That turned out to be painful, but I think it is worth it.

Results

It took me 01:17:07 to list 100 women - that was very bad.

Name 100 Women: My full list
  1. Ada Lovelace: English mathematician (1815–1852)
  2. Grace Hopper: American computer scientist and United States Navy officer (1906–1992)
  3. Wu Zetian: founding empress of Zhou dynasty (r. 690–705); de facto ruler of Tang dynasty from 665 to 690
  4. Park Geun-hye: President of South Korea from 2013 to 2017
  5. Sasha Obama: daughter of former US President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama
  6. Michelle Obama: lawyer and former First Lady of the United States
  7. Hillary Clinton: American politician and diplomat (born 1947)
  8. Amy Coney Barrett: Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 2020
  9. Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 to 2020
  10. Kamala Harris: Vice President of the United States from 2021 to 2025
  11. Marie Curie: Polish and French physicist and chemist (1867–1934)
  12. Anne Frank: German-born Dutch Jewish diarist and Holocaust victim (1929–1945)
  13. Angela Merkel: chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021
  14. J. K. Rowling: British author and philanthropist (born 1965)
  15. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: United States Representative from New York since 2019
  16. Marine Le Pen: French politician (born 1968)
  17. Elizabeth II: Queen of the United Kingdom from 1952 to 2022
  18. Victoria: Queen of the United Kingdom from 1837 to 1901
  19. Emma Watson: English actress and activist (born 1990)
  20. Taylor Swift: American singer-songwriter (born 1989)
  21. Kristen Anderson-Lopez: American songwriter
  22. Avril Lavigne: Canadian singer and songwriter (born 1984)
  23. Zendaya: American actress and singer
  24. Idina Menzel: American actress and singer
  25. Kristen Bell: American actress and singer (born 1980)
  26. Lea Salonga: Filipina singer and actress (born 1971)
  27. Mary, Queen of Scots: Queen of Scotland from 1542 to 1567
  28. Melania Trump: first lady of the United States (2017–2021, since 2025)
  29. Tu Youyou: Chinese medical scientist
  30. Kim Geon-hee: South Korean short track speed skater
  31. Kim Ju-ae: daughter of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju
  32. Peng Liyuan: Chinese Soprano, Spouse of Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party since 2012
  33. Maurie McInnis: American historian and university president
  34. Britney Spears: American pop singer, songwriter, actress and model
  35. Lady Gaga: American singer, songwriter, and actress (born 1986)
  36. Rachel Platten: American singer, songwriter and author (born 1981)
  37. Selena Gomez: American singer and actress (born 1992)
  38. KT Tunstall: Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist
  39. Nicola Sturgeon: First Minister of Scotland from 2014 to 2023
  40. Liz Truss: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 2022
  41. Margaret Thatcher: British stateswoman and prime minister (1925–2013)
  42. Theresa May: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2016 to 2019
  43. Teresa Teng: Taiwanese ROC singer (1953-1995)
  44. Alice Weidel: German politician (born 1979)
  45. Alice Munro: Canadian writer (1931–2024)
  46. Rachel Carson: American marine biologist and conservationist (1907-1964)
  47. Meghan Trainor: American singer-songwriter (born 1993)
  48. Elizabeth I of England: Queen of England and Ireland from 1558 to 1603
  49. Catherine, Princess of Wales: member of the British Royal Family and princess of Wales since 2022
  50. Murasaki Shikibu: Japanese novelist and poet (c.973–c.1014)
  51. Sachiko Kobayashi: Japanese singer (1953-)
  52. Milet: Japanese singer-songwriter
  53. Jill Biden: First Lady of the United States from 2021 to 2025
  54. Nancy Pelosi: American politician (born 1940)
  55. Elizabeth Warren: American politician (born 1949)
  56. Kanae Minato: Japanese crime fiction writer
  57. Banana Yoshimoto: Japanese writer
  58. Elizabeth Holmes: American biotechnology entrepreneur convicted of fraud
  59. Jacqueline de Chevigny: French religious servant and biblical scholar (1911–1993)
  60. Rosalind Franklin: British chemist, biophysicist, and X-ray crystallographer
  61. Choi Sun-sil: South Korean shaman and cult leader (born 1956)
  62. Akie Abe: wife of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe
  63. Yuriko Koike: Japanese politician (born 1952)
  64. Amelia Earhart: American aviation pioneer and author (1897-1939)
  65. Susan Collins: United States Senator from Maine since 1997
  66. Malia Obama: daughter of former US President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama
  67. Wang Zhaojun: one of the Four Beauties of ancient China
  68. nirvAnA: Singaporean progamer
  69. Meghan, Duchess of Sussex: member of the British royal family and Duchess of Sussex since 2018
  70. Diana, Princess of Wales: member of the British royal family and Princess of Wales (1961–1997)
  71. Sonia Sotomayor: Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 2009
  72. Elena Kagan: Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 2010
  73. Ketanji Brown Jackson: Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 2022
  74. Emily Brontë: English novelist and poet (1818–1848)
  75. Aung San Suu Kyi: Former State Counsellor of Myanmar and Leader of the National League for Democracy
  76. Nguyễn Thị Kim Ngân: Chairwoman of the National Assembly of Vietnam
  77. Sabrina Carpenter: American singer and actress (born 1999)
  78. Greta Thunberg: Swedish climate protection activist (born 2003)
  79. Jane Austen: English novelist (1775–1817)
  80. Queen Camilla: Queen Consort of the United Kingdom since 2022
  81. Florence Nightingale: English social reformer, statistician, and founder of modern nursing (1820–1910)
  82. Mother Teresa: Albanian-Indian Catholic nun and missionary (1910–1997)
  83. Jiang Qing: Chinese political figure and wife of Mao Zedong (1914–1991)
  84. Tsai Ing-wen: 14th and 15th President of Republic of China(Taiwan)
  85. Miyuki Miyabe: Japanese novelist
  86. G.E.M.: Hong Kong singer-songwriter
  87. Vanessa Trump: ex-wife of Donald Trump Jr. (born 1977)
  88. Carrie Lam: former Chief Executive of Hong Kong
  89. Agnes of Rome: Christian martyr
  90. Malala Yousafzai: Pakistani children’s education activist
  91. Amy Carter: daughter of United States president Jimmy Carter
  92. Huang Yueying: Zhuge Liang’s wife
  93. Tao Huabi: Chinese entrepreneur, founder of Lao Gan Ma
  94. Empress Dowager Cixi: Chinese empress (1835–1908)
  95. Toby Hendy: New Zealand science communicator
  96. Pauli Murray: American writer, activist, lawyer and Episcopal priest (1910-1985)
  97. Audrey Hepburn: British actress (1929–1993)
  98. Lin Yi-han: Taiwanese writer
  99. Kim Kardashian: American media personality, businesswoman, model and actress (born 1980)
  100. Amber Heard: American actress

I had no idea who nirvAnA was, but I also found out that Zhan Ying was not on Wikidata, so I guess we were even.

As for my 14 wrong guesses, they were mostly misspellings, but I did learn that (Wikidata says) Demi Lovato & Miley Cyrus were genderfluid. Sorry!

Analysis

I asked Claude 3.7 Sonnet who I might have missed, and here are some people I did know (not personally, obviously) but miss:

  • Rosa Parks: American civil rights activist
  • Joan of Arc: French military leader and Catholic saint
  • Cleopatra: Last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt
  • Indira Gandhi: Former Prime Minister of India
  • Serena Williams: American tennis player
  • Eleanor Roosevelt: American political figure and diplomat
  • Beyoncé: American singer and entrepreneur
  • Helen Keller: American author and disability rights advocate
  • Madonna: American singer and cultural icon

I guess Cleopatra and Hellen Keller were the two people I should have remembered.

(Update: I was doing the 100 men list, then I remembered Lisa Su and Janet Yellen. Definitely should not have forgotten about them.)

Then I asked Claude 3.7 Sonnet for more analysis, so here goes:

Limited representation from Africa, South America, Middle East, and South Asia (with exceptions like Malala Yousafzai)

Yep, a majority of those people are from “the West” and East Asia.

Strong representation of female political leaders and First Ladies/political spouses

I guess I’m into politics.

Ada Lovelace (#1) and Grace Hopper (#2) are prominently positioned at the top

The two HPC clusters I’ve logged in to so far are called ada and grace. Also thanks to Nvidia for naming their products after these two.

Many women on the list were “firsts” in their fields

Sure, but I guess no one is tracking the first men in their fields. Again, the world is still a hard place for women.

An app?

I’m sure a list of either men, or idols & voice actors from Japan, will go much more smoothly.

There doesn’t seem to be an app around for that, so maybe I’ll write one as a side project, or just do it myself.

My initial thought was to hook up Wikidata and rely on its statements, such as “instance of: human” and “sex or gender: female”.

But then I checked Wikidata and a lot of lesser-known people (Itō Momoka, Takao Sayaka, and Morokuzu Noa, to name a few) are not on Wikipedia at all.

And the solutions don’t look great either:

  • LLM as a judge: complexity, not deterministic anymore, need to figure out web search.
  • Hook up 48pedia: not scalable to other categories of niche people or things.

And so the project was called off.

Name 100 Men

This took me 50 minutes and 27 seconds, which I think is not that faster than naming 100 women. So I think there is a skill issue on my part as well.

Note: I used gpt-4o-2024-08-06 to generate the descriptions, and edited out some out-of-date ones.

Name 100 Men: My full list
  1. Boris Johnson: British politician, former Prime Minister of the UK.
  2. Winston Churchill: British statesman, Prime Minister during WWII (1874–1965).
  3. Napoleon Bonaparte: French military leader and emperor (1769–1821).
  4. Nelson Mandela: South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and President (1918–2013).
  5. Imran Khan: Pakistani politician, former Prime Minister, and cricketer.
  6. Sadiq Khan: Mayor of London, former Member of Parliament.
  7. Sam Altman: Entrepreneur, CEO of OpenAI.
  8. John F. Kennedy: 35th President of the United States (1917–1963).
  9. Joseph Stalin: Leader of the Soviet Union from mid-1920s to 1953.
  10. Leo Tolstoy: Russian author known for “War and Peace” (1828–1910).
  11. Randall Munroe: Creator of the webcomic xkcd.
  12. John Cena: Professional wrestler and actor.
  13. Ed Miliband: British politician, former Leader of the Labour Party.
  14. Justin Trudeau: Former Prime Minister of Canada.
  15. Emmanuel Macron: President of France.
  16. Boris Kozinsky: Researcher and scientist in materials science.
  17. Don McLean: American singer-songwriter, famous for “American Pie.”
  18. Langston Hughes: American poet and leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance (1902–1967).
  19. Peter Salovey: Former President of Yale University, psychologist.
  20. Alexander Hamilton: Founding Father of the US, first Secretary of the Treasury (1755–1804).
  21. Peter the Great: Emperor of Russia, modernized the Russian state (1672–1725).
  22. Petro Poroshenko: Former President of Ukraine.
  23. Dmitry Medvedev: Russian politician, former President and Prime Minister.
  24. Vladimir Putin: President of Russia.
  25. Roh Tae-woo: Former President of South Korea (1932–2021).
  26. Lee Hsien Loong: Prime Minister of Singapore.
  27. Nate Silver: American statistician, political analyst, editor in chief of FiveThirtyEight.
  28. Antonin Scalia: Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the US (1936–2016).
  29. Lee Kuan Yew: Founding Prime Minister of Singapore (1923–2015).
  30. Jensen Huang: CEO and co-founder of NVIDIA Corporation.
  31. Bernie Sanders: US Senator, known for his progressive policies.
  32. John Bercow: Former Speaker of the House of Commons in the UK.
  33. Keir Starmer: Prime Minister of UK.
  34. Jeremy Corbyn: Former Leader of the Labour Party in the UK.
  35. Sam Bankman-Fried: Cryptocurrency entrepreneur, CEO of FTX.
  36. Henry Ford: Founder of Ford Motor Company, innovator of mass production (1863–1947).
  37. Richard Feynman: American theoretical physicist, Nobel laureate (1918–1988).
  38. Tim Cook: CEO of Apple Inc.
  39. Barack Obama: 44th President of the United States.
  40. Albert Einstein: Physicist known for the theory of relativity (1879–1955).
  41. Erich Honecker: Leader of East Germany (1912–1994).
  42. Billy Ray Cyrus: American singer-songwriter, known for “Achy Breaky Heart.”
  43. Tim McGraw: American country singer and actor.
  44. Satya Nadella: CEO of Microsoft.
  45. Paul Graham: Co-founder of Y Combinator, programmer and entrepreneur.
  46. Andrej Karpathy: AI researcher and former Director of AI at Tesla.
  47. Kim Jong Un: Supreme Leader of North Korea.
  48. Kim Il Sung: Founder of North Korea, leader from 1948 to 1994.
  49. Kim Jong Il: Leader of North Korea from 1994 to 2011.
  50. Chiang Kai-shek: Chinese political and military leader (1887–1975).
  51. Alfred Nobel: Inventor of dynamite, founder of the Nobel Prizes (1833–1896).
  52. Olaf Scholz: Chancellor of Germany.
  53. Pope Francis: Current head of the Catholic Church.
  54. Lafayette: French aristocrat and military officer in the American Revolutionary War (1757–1834).
  55. Alexander the Great: King of Macedonia, created a vast empire (356–323 BC).
  56. Genghis Khan: Founder of the Mongol Empire (c. 1162–1227).
  57. Mikhail Gorbachev: Final leader of the Soviet Union, known for reforms (1931–2022).
  58. Vladimir Lenin: Leader of the Bolshevik Revolution, head of Soviet Russia (1870–1924).
  59. Friedrich Engels: German philosopher, co-author of “The Communist Manifesto” (1820–1895).
  60. Friedrich Merz: German politician, leader of the CDU.
  61. Friedrich Nietzsche: German philosopher known for his ideas on nihilism (1844–1900).
  62. Friedrich Hayek: Economist and philosopher known for his defense of classical liberalism (1899–1992).
  63. John Maynard Keynes: Influential British economist (1883–1946).
  64. Noam Chomsky: American linguist, philosopher, and political activist.
  65. Linus Torvalds: Creator of the Linux operating system.
  66. Slavoj Žižek: Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic.
  67. Steve Jobs: Co-founder of Apple Inc., innovator in technology (1955–2011).
  68. Bill Gates: Co-founder of Microsoft, philanthropist.
  69. George H. W. Bush: 41st President of the United States (1924–2018).
  70. George W. Bush: 43rd President of the United States.
  71. Bill Clinton: 42nd President of the United States.
  72. Jerome Powell: Chair of the Federal Reserve.
  73. Donald Trump: 45th President of the United States.
  74. Michael Bloomberg: Business magnate, former Mayor of New York City.
  75. Leonard Bernstein: American composer and conductor (1918–1990).
  76. Antonio Vivaldi: Italian Baroque composer (1678–1741).
  77. Bedřich Smetana: Czech composer known for his nationalistic music (1824–1884).
  78. Alexander Pushkin: Russian poet and playwright (1799–1837).
  79. Georgy Sviridov: Russian composer known for choral and orchestral works (1915–1998).
  80. Joe Biden: 46th President of the United States.
  81. Moon Jae-in: Former President of South Korea.
  82. Phil Scott: Governor of Vermont.
  83. Babe Ruth: Legendary American baseball player (1895–1948).
  84. Michael Schumacher: Seven-time Formula One World Champion.
  85. Richard Stallman: Advocate of free software, founder of the Free Software Foundation.
  86. Raymond Chen: Noted software engineer at Microsoft.
  87. Sergei Shoigu: Russian Minister of Defense.
  88. Yevgeny Prigozhin: Russian businessman with ties to the Kremlin.
  89. Bashar al-Assad: Ousted President of Syria.
  90. Leonardo da Vinci: Italian polymath and artist (1452–1519).
  91. Sigmund Freud: Austrian neurologist, founder of psychoanalysis (1856–1939).
  92. William III of England: King of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1650–1702).
  93. Franklin D. Roosevelt: 32nd President of the United States, led during the Great Depression and WWII (1882–1945).
  94. Al Gore: Former Vice President of the United States, environmental activist.
  95. William Sanford Nye (Bill Nye): Science educator and television presenter.
  96. Carl Sagan: Astronomer and science communicator (1934–1996).
  97. Kazuo Ishiguro: British novelist, Nobel Prize winner in Literature.
  98. Lionel Messi: Argentine professional footballer, one of the greatest players of all time.
  99. Pierre Trudeau: Former Prime Minister of Canada, father of Justin Trudeau (1919–2000).
  100. Mark Carney: Prime Minister of Canada.

There’s no point asking who I might have missed, so I asked Claude 3.7 Sonnet to critique me:

Political Leaders: The largest category

Yep, I guess I am into politics.

Several notable CEOs and entrepreneurs

And I also read too much Hacker News.

Limited representation from Africa, South America, and the Middle East

I am not knowledgeable enough - seems like an area of improvement.

About 30% are deceased, while 70% are living or recently living figures

I am a modern person, it seems.

Mark Carney is incorrectly listed as “Prime Minister of Canada”)

This is so recent that I can’t expect Claude to know, but sorry Claude, you don’t know.

(By the way, GPT-4o said “Former Governor of the Bank of England”.)

Comparative analysis

Claude 3.7 Sonnet says:

Men’s list features more individuals who held direct political/economic power

I think this is what some see is wrong with the world today, and I don’t disagree.

Women’s list includes more individuals defined by relationship to powerful men

Sorry! Same as my last comment.

The women’s list includes more recent (post-2020) figures

Hmm, interesting. I have no idea why.

Men’s list includes more historical “canonical” figures

I learned about them in school more, probably.

Men’s list Very few under 40 years old, Women’s List Includes several young contemporary figures

Some also see this as what’s wrong; again, I don’t disagree.

Name 100 idols & voice actors

This being the fun part, I am hereby proclaiming this to take under 30 minutes. Maybe even 15?

I doubt that an off-the-shelf AI model would be able to analyze this though. Perhaps it is time for manual classification? But the border between idols & voice actors isn’t that well-defined.

Anyways, here goes the list I made:

Name 100 idols & voice actors: My full list
  1. 櫻井陽菜
  2. 葉山風花
  3. 来栖りん
  4. 楡井希実
  5. 野中ここな
  6. 菅叶和
  7. 花宮初奈
  8. 佐々木琴子
  9. 月音こな
  10. 佐々木美玲
  11. 渡邉美穂 (アイドル)
  12. 小坂菜緒
  13. 平手友梨奈
  14. 生駒里奈
  15. 生田絵梨花
  16. 齋藤飛鳥
  17. 西野七瀬
  18. 橋本奈々未
  19. 深川麻衣
  20. 船井美玖
  21. 小野寺梓
  22. 松本ももな
  23. 伊達さゆり
  24. 岬なこ
  25. 青山なぎさ
  26. Liyuu
  27. ペイトン尚未
  28. 大熊和奏
  29. 薮島朱音
  30. 鈴原希実
  31. 絵森彩
  32. ゆかな
  33. 坂倉花
  34. 古賀葵
  35. 飯田ヒカル
  36. 遠野ひかる
  37. 小鹿なお
  38. 松田彩音
  39. 長月あおい
  40. 神田沙也加
  41. 新内眞衣
  42. 菅野真衣
  43. 渡辺美穂
  44. 指原莉乃
  45. 瀧野由美子
  46. 指出毬亜
  47. 久保田未夢
  48. 芹澤優
  49. 村上まなつ
  50. 長江里加
  51. 立花日菜
  52. 矢野妃菜喜
  53. 大西亜玖璃
  54. 高尾奏音
  55. 前田佳織里
  56. 相良茉優
  57. 内田秀
  58. 内田彩
  59. 内田真礼
  60. 田中美久
  61. 田中美海
  62. 伊藤美来
  63. 豊田萌絵
  64. 黒沢ともよ
  65. 小泉萌香
  66. 岩田陽葵
  67. 冨田菜々風
  68. 野口衣織
  69. 山本杏奈
  70. 大橋彩香
  71. 福原綾香
  72. 種田梨沙
  73. 種﨑敦美
  74. 今井麻美
  75. 黒木ほの香
  76. 小山百代
  77. 汐入あすか
  78. 会沢紗弥
  79. 生田輝
  80. 伊藤彩沙
  81. Pile
  82. 新田恵海
  83. 三森すずこ
  84. 小宮有紗
  85. 逢田梨香子
  86. 斉藤朱夏
  87. 伊波杏樹
  88. 降幡愛
  89. 小林愛香
  90. Machico
  91. 木戸衣吹
  92. 山崎エリイ
  93. 小倉唯
  94. 土屋李央
  95. 稗田寧々
  96. 雨宮天
  97. 麻倉もも
  98. 夏川椎菜
  99. 橘美來
  100. 水瀬いのり

And that only took 17:53 - pretty close to 15.

(Note the lack of “Japanese” as a quantifier here because Liyuu, but also because I forgot about Amaki Sally.)

I did end up (asking Claude 3.7 Sonnet and heavily-re) writing a Python script that polls Japanese Wikipedia. Writing it took more time than I would have liked though.

Here’s a cute asciinema - see me type & make typos:

Screen recording

Did you know that 小阪菜緒 and 小坂奈緒 are redirects to 小坂菜緒? I didn’t!