215,950 profiles ranked

← Fame through time1850-1859

The 1850s

Whose names filled the books of the 1850s - anyone at all, however long dead - counted as mentions per million words printed, so a period that simply published more does not inflate anyone.

Talked about then

Whose names appeared most in Russian books during the 1850s, whenever they lived.

  1. 1Patriarch Nikon of Moscow1605-1681 · 17th century · Religious Figures9.0
  2. 2Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow1482-1563 · 16th century · Writers4.9
  3. 3Patriarch Joachim1621-1690 · 17th century1.6
  4. 4Boris Godunov1552-1605 · 16th century · Politicians1.4
  5. 5Ivan I Aleksandrovich, Prince of Smolenskdied 1359 · 14th century1.3
  6. 6Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia1783-1801 · 19th century · Russia · Historical Figures1.3
  7. 7Ivan I of Tver1357-1425 · 14th century · Historical Figures1.2
  8. 8Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich of Russia1779-1831 · 19th century · Russia · Politicians0.90
  9. 9Alexandra Velyaminova1301-1364 · 14th century0.88
  10. 10Peter the Great1672-1725 · 18th century · Russia · Politicians0.72
  11. 11Avraamy Palitsyn1550-1626 · 16th century · Writers0.70
  12. 12Maximus the Greek1475-1556 · 16th century · Writers0.63
  13. 13Anna of Russia1693-1740 · 18th century · Russia · Politicians0.63
  14. 14Dimitry of Rostov1651-1709 · 17th century · Writers0.48
  15. 15Paul I of Russia1754-1801 · 18th century · Russia · Historical Figures0.42
  16. 16Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn1643-1714 · 17th century · Politicians0.41
  17. 17Vasili IV of Russia1552-1612 · 16th century · Historical Figures0.39
  18. 18Grigory Orlov1734-1783 · 18th century · Russia · Historical Figures0.37
  19. 19Ivan Mazepa1639-1709 · 17th century · Politicians0.35
  20. 20Stefan Yavorsky1658-1722 · 17th century · Russia · Academics0.34
  21. 21Mykhailo Maksymovych1804-1873 · 19th century · Russia · Writers0.30
  22. 22Kirill Razumovsky1728-1803 · 18th century · Russia · Politicians0.26
  23. 23Nikolay Dobrolyubov1836-1861 · 19th century · Russia · Academics0.25
  24. 24Elizabeth of Russia1709-1761 · 18th century · Russia · Historical Figures0.22
  25. 25Alexis of Russia1629-1676 · 17th century · Historical Figures0.21
Show 75 more

Lived then

The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 1850s, ranked where coverage and readership agree.

  1. 1Karl Marx1818-1883 · Germany · Academics17 decades
  2. 2Fyodor Dostoevsky1821-1881 · Russia · Writers17 decades
  3. 3Queen Victoria1819-1901 · United Kingdom · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  4. 4Otto von Bismarck1815-1898 · Germany · Politicians16 decades
  5. 5Ulysses S. Grant1822-1885 · United States · Politicians16 decades
  6. 6Florence Nightingale1820-1910 · Writers17 decades
  7. 7Louis Pasteur1822-1895 · France · Scientists14 decades
  8. 8Ada Lovelace1815-1852 · Academics3 decades
  9. 9Rutherford B. Hayes1822-1893 · United States · Politicians16 decades
  10. 10Charlotte Brontë1816-1855 · United Kingdom · Writers17 decades
  11. 11Friedrich Engels1820-1895 · United Kingdom · Academics17 decades
  12. 12Henry David Thoreau1817-1862 · United States · Writers13 decades
  13. 13Walt Whitman1819-1892 · United States · Writers17 decades
  14. 14Alexander II of Russia1818-1881 · Russia · Historical Figures17 decades
  15. 15Harriet Tubman1821-1913 · United States · Writers9 decades
  16. 16Charles Baudelaire1821-1867 · France · Writers17 decades
  17. 17George Eliot1819-1880 · United Kingdom · Writers19 decades
  18. 18Herman Melville1819-1891 · United States · Writers18 decades
  19. 19Frederick Douglass1818-1895 · United States · Writers18 decades
  20. 20Gregor Mendel1822-1884 · Scientists12 decades
  21. 21Gustave Flaubert1821-1880 · France · Writers17 decades
  22. 22John Ruskin1819-1900 · United Kingdom · Writers18 decades
  23. 23Susan B. Anthony1820-1906 · United States · Activists16 decades
  24. 24Rani of Jhansi1828-1858 · India · Activists8 decades
  25. 25William Tecumseh Sherman1820-1891 · United States · Writers14 decades
Show 75 more

How to read these rankings

  • Attention, not reputation. A place on these lists reflects the attention a person still draws in the public record. It is not a judgement on the life.
  • Fame in print. The curves show how often a name appeared in the books of each decade from 1800 to 2019, drawn from the Google Books Ngram corpus.
  • Gaps are left as gaps. Where the record is too thin to be fair, we would rather show nothing than guess.