← 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
George Washington22 decades - 2
Thomas Jefferson22 decades - 3
Benjamin Franklin22 decades - 4
Peter the Great21 decades - 5
John Adams22 decades - 6
James Madison22 decades - 7
Alexander Hamilton22 decades - 8
James Monroe22 decades - 9
Charles X of France22 decades - 10
Aaron Burr22 decades - 11
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgordnot measured- - 12
Edmund Burke22 decades - 13
Philip V of Spain22 decades - 14
Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayettenot measured- - 15
Anna of Russia21 decades - 16
Peter II of Russia19 decades - 17
Jean-Paul Marat19 decades - 18
Louis XVIII of France22 decades - 19
Abigail Adams16 decades - 20
William Pitt the Younger3 decades - 21
Martha Washington21 decades - 22
Mikhail Kutuzov8 decades - 23
Robert Walpole22 decades - 24
Toussaint Louverture22 decades - 25
Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperornot 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.