← 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
Marie Antoinette22 decades - 3
James Cook22 decades - 4
Frederick the Great22 decades - 5
Maria Theresa22 decades - 6
Paul I of Russia21 decades - 7
Anne, Queen of Great Britain0 decades - 8
Louis XVI of France22 decades - 9
George II of Great Britainnot measured- - 10
Peter III of Russia21 decades - 11
Louis XV of France22 decades - 12
Elizabeth of Russia20 decades - 13
Catherine I of Russia18 decades - 14
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor22 decades - 15
George III of the United Kingdom0 decades - 16
Blackbeard22 decades - 17
Qianlong Emperor3 decades - 18
Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor22 decades - 19
Nader Shah4 decades - 20
Charles XII of Sweden22 decades - 21
Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor6 decades - 22
Charles IV of Spain17 decades - 23
Anne Bonny2 decades - 24
Ahmad Shah Durrani4 decades - 25
Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitznot 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.