← Fame through time1700-1799
The 18th century
Whose working lives fell in the 18th century. Books are measured from 1800 and readers from 2015, so for this period we can say who lived then, not who was talked about then.
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 18th century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Catherine the Great22 decades - 2
Paul I of Russia21 decades - 3
Elizabeth of Russia20 decades - 4
Catherine I of Russia18 decades - 5
Sophie Dorothee of Württemberg0 decades - 6
Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russianot measured- - 7
Grigory Orlov18 decades - 8
Vasily Tatishchev16 decades - 9
Semyon Chelyuskin5 decades - 10
Georg Wilhelm Steller3 decades - 11
Nikolai Rezanov5 decades - 12
Alexander Baranov8 decades - 13
Grigory Shelikhovnot measured- - 14
Herman of Alaska0 decades - 15
Peter August of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck13 decades - 16Khariton Laptev4 decades
- 17
Vasily Chichagov0 decades - 18
Aleksei Chirikov6 decades - 19
Princess Catherine Ivanovna of Russianot measured- - 20Yakov Sannikov3 decades
- 21Dmitry Laptev0 decades
- 22
Vasili Pronchishchevnot measured- - 23
Grand Duchess Olga Pavlovna of Russianot measured- - 24Martin Spanberg0 decades
- 25
Princess Maria Elisabeth of Saxonynot measured- - 26
Princess Eudoxia Borisovna Yusupovanot measured- - 27
Tatiana Pronchishchevanot measured- - 28
Princess Caroline of Waldeck and Pyrmontnot measured- - 29Stepan Malygin0 decades
- 30
Johanna Magdalene of Saxe-Weissenfelsnot measured- - 31Gerasim Izmailovnot measured-
- 32
Fedor Soimonovnot measured- - 33Ivan Kozyrevskynot measured-
- 34Pyotr Krenitsynnot measured-
- 35
Stepan Stepanovich Apraksinnot measured- - 36
Dmitry Ovtsynnot measured- - 37Fyodor Mininnot measured-
- 38
Nikolaĭ Rychkovnot measured- - 39
Aleksey Skuratovnot measured- - 40
Amalie Louise of Courlandnot measured- - 41Ilya Berezhnykhnot measured-
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.