Most popular Scot? I’ll have to Google it
HE is one of Hollywood’s biggest action heroes thanks to roles in Tomb Raider, 300 and Olympus Has Fallen.
Now Gerard Butler can claim a more unusual claim to fame – as the most-Googled Scot.
The 50-year-old, from Paisley, Renfrewshire, was searched for more times than superstars including Sir Sean Connery and Sir Rod Stewart.
Butler – who played a Secret Service agent in last year’s Angel Has Fallen – notches up a monthly average of 1,025,959 searches worldwide.
He is closely followed by Inverness-born Marvel and Jumanji actress Karen Gillan, 32, on 985,510.
The third most-Googled Scot is tennis ace Sir Andy Murray, with 857,673 monthly searches. Other names on the list include X-Men actor James McAvoy, chef Gordon Ramsay, actor Sam Heughan – now famous worldwide as Outlander’s Highland hunk Jamie Fraser – Star Wars’ Ewan McGregor and DJ Calvin Harris.
Google search trends for famous Scots were analysed by data provider SEMrush, between January 2016 and January 2020.
The firm’s Olga Andrienko said: ‘Famous Scots are making waves across the globe, with millions of searches not only in Scotland but also the furthest corners of the world.
‘It’s a pleasant surprise to see that Gerard Butler is the most-searched for Scot globally, nudging out some of the world’s most enduring Scottish favourites – including Sir Sean Connery.
‘It’s also promising to see national favourite Karen Gillan creeping up behind him in the global rankings, going from Doctor Who’s little known sidekick to a Hollywood major player thanks to Guardians of the Galaxy and Jumanji.’
But while Sir Andy Murray is only third in the global rankings, he is the mostGoogled Scot in his homeland, with an average of 89,596 searches per month.
In second place in Scotland is First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, followed by Someone You Loved singer Lewis Capaldi, footballer Kieran Tierney and Gordon Ramsay.
Sir Rod, Butler, Sir Billy Connolly, McGregor and Harris make up the Scots top ten.