Who's Who

"Who's Who" or "Who is Who" is the name of a number of reference publications, generally containing concise biographical information on a particular group of people. It is also used as an expression meaning a collection or group of noted persons.

Examples of "Who's Who" publications include:

* Who's Who (UK), a listing of prominent British people since 1849; people who have died since 1897 are listed in "Who Was Who"
* Who's Who in Australia, a listing of prominent Australians since 1923
* Who's Who in American Art, a listing of prominent American artists
* Who's Who in France, a listing of prominent French or people living in France since 1953
* Who's Who in British History
* Who's Who in Scotland, a listing of prominent Scots since 1986
* Who's Who in the DC Universe a listing of DC Comics characters
* Who's Who Among American High School Students and Who's Who Among American College Students, listing what it deems to be American high school and college students who particularly excel in the realm of academic achievement
* Who's Who Online, an automated web information aggregation service
* Hinterland Who's Who, a series of 60-second public service ads profiling Canadian animals and birds, produced by Environment Canada in the 1960s
* International Who's Who by Europa Publications, a Taylor and Francis imprint
* Marquis Who's Who, a series of books published by Marquis, primarily listing prominent American people but including Who's Who in the World.
* Hübners Blaues Who Is Who, by Who is Who, Verlag für Personenenzyklopädien AG, Zürich, which has a number of national editions throughout Europe:
** one common edition for German-speaking countries (Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, Germany and Luxembourg): "Who is who in dem deutschen Sprachgebiet", as well as the separate national editions for
*** Austria: "Who is Who in Österreich"
*** and Germany: " Who is Who in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland"),
** Poland: "Who is Who w Polsce",
** Czech Republic: "Who is ...? (v České republice)",
** Slovakia: " Who is Who v Slovenskej republike",
** Hungary: " Who is Who Magyarországon",
** Romania: "Enciclopedia Personalităţilor din România: Who is Who",
** Greece and Cyprus: "Who is Who στην Ελλάδα",
** Turkey: " Türkiye’de Who is Who",
** and Russia (including the other Russian-speaking country - Belarus, and Russians from the other countries of the former USSR): "Who is Who в России".

Other "Who's Who" publications

The title "Who's Who" is in the public domain, and thousands of "Who's Who" compilations of varying scope and quality have been published by various authors and publishers. Many Who's Who publications are vanity publications, where the inclusion criterion is the biographee's willingness to buy the book, and the business model consists in selling books directly to the biographees.

ee also

* Marquis Who's Who
* Who's Who scam