1800–1899
The 19th century
Whose names filled the books of the 19th century — 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 19th century — whenever they lived.
In books written inEnglish18,114German3,599French3,347Italian1,787Spanish1,162Russian325Hebrew105Chinese9
#PersonIn print, 1800–2019Per million words
- 1
Patriarch Nikon of Moscow1605–1681 · 17th century · Religious Figures6.7 - 2
Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow1482–1563 · 16th century · Writers3.1 - 3
Nikolai Rezanov1764–1807 · 18th century · Historical Figures1.3 - 4
Boris Godunov1552–1605 · 16th century · Politicians0.99 - 5
Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich of Russia1859–1919 · 19th century · Historical Figures0.94 - 6
Patriarch Joachim1621–1690 · 17th century0.86 - 7
Vasili IV of Russia1552–1612 · 16th century · Historical Figures0.86 - 8
Nikolay Karamzin1766–1826 · 19th century · Writers0.85 - 9
Nicholas Alexandrovich, Tsesarevich of Russia1843–1865 · 19th century · Historical Figures0.83 - 10
Anna of Russia1693–1740 · 18th century · Politicians0.82 - 11
Nikolay Semyonov1896–1986 · 20th century · Scientists0.75 - 12
Ivan I of Tver1357–1425 · 14th century · Historical Figures0.66 - 13
Avraamy Palitsyn1550–1626 · 16th century · Writers0.64 - 14
Ivan I Aleksandrovich, Prince of Smolenskdied 1359 · 14th century0.62 - 15
Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich of Russia1779–1831 · 19th century · Politicians0.62 - 16
Elizabeth of Russia1709–1761 · 18th century · Historical Figures0.58 - 17
Alexandra Velyaminova1301–1364 · 14th century0.57 - 18
Peter the Great1672–1725 · 18th century · Politicians0.53 - 19
Maximus the Greek1475–1556 · 16th century · Writers0.53 - 20
Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia1783–1801 · 19th century · Historical Figures0.43 - 21
Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich of Russia1864–1931 · 19th century · Historical Figures0.42 - 22
Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich of Russia1832–1909 · 19th century · Politicians0.42 - 23
Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia1895–1918 · 20th century · Historical Figures0.39 - 24
Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich of Russia1827–1892 · 19th century · Historical Figures0.39 - 25
Grigory Orlov1734–1783 · 18th century · Historical Figures0.38 - 26
Alexander I of Russia1777–1825 · 19th century · Historical Figures0.36 - 27
Leo Tolstoy1828–1910 · 19th century · Writers0.35 - 28
Alexander Bestuzhev1797–1837 · 19th century · Writers0.34 - 29
Ivan the Terrible1530–1584 · 16th century · Politicians0.33 - 30
Pyotr Panin1721–1789 · 18th century0.33 - 31
Ippolit Bogdanovich1743–1803 · 18th century · Writers0.33 - 32
Peter III of Russia1728–1762 · 18th century · 🇩🇪 Germany · Historical Figures0.31
- 33
Stefan Yavorsky1658–1722 · 17th century · Academics0.30 - 34
Grigory Potemkin1739–1791 · 18th century · Politicians0.30 - 35
Boris of Tver1400–1461 · 15th century0.29 - 36
Ivan Mazepa1639–1709 · 17th century · Politicians0.29 - 37
Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia1899–1918 · 20th century · Historical Figures0.29 - 38
Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia1850–1908 · 19th century · Historical Figures0.29 - 39
Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn1643–1714 · 17th century · Politicians0.28 - 40
Paul I of Russia1754–1801 · 18th century · Historical Figures0.28 - 41
Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia1860–1919 · 19th century · Politicians0.28 - 42
Ivan Ivanovich Shuvalov1727–1797 · 18th century · Writers0.28 - 43
Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia1690–1718 · 18th century · Politicians0.27 - 44
Nicholas I of Russia1796–1855 · 19th century · Models0.26 - 45
Alexander Pushkin1799–1837 · 19th century · Writers0.26 - 46
Dimitry of Rostov1651–1709 · 17th century · Writers0.26 - 47
Alexander Griboyedov1795–1829 · 19th century · Politicians0.25 - 48
Alexander Herzen1812–1870 · 19th century · 🇨🇭 Switzerland · Writers0.24 - 49
Vissarion Belinsky1811–1848 · 19th century · Academics0.23 - 50
Konstantin Aksakov1817–1860 · 19th century · Writers0.23 - 51
Nikita Panin1718–1783 · 18th century · Politicians0.22
- 52
Symeon of Polotsk1629–1680 · 17th century · Writers0.21 - 53
Aleksei Musin-Pushkin1744–1817 · 18th century · Writers0.21 - 54
Alexis of Russia1629–1676 · 17th century · Historical Figures0.21 - 55
Xenia Shestova1560–1631 · 16th century0.20 - 56
Mikhail Lermontov1814–1841 · 19th century · Writers0.19 - 57
Olga Nikolaevna of Russia1822–1892 · 19th century · Historical Figures0.19 - 58
Pavel Fedotov1815–1852 · 19th century · Artists0.19 - 59
Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich of Russia1858–1915 · 19th century · Writers0.19 - 60
Dmitry Shuisky1560–1612 · 16th century0.19 - 61
Alexey Venetsianov1780–1847 · 19th century · Artists0.18 - 62
Nikolay Alexandrovich Lvov1753–1803 · 18th century · Academics0.18 - 63
Catherine Pavlovna of Russia1788–1819 · 19th century · Historical Figures0.18 - 64
Fyodor Alekseyev1755–1824 · 18th century · Artists0.18 - 65
Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna of Russia1825–1844 · 19th century · Historical Figures0.17 - 66
Konstantin Batyushkov1787–1855 · 19th century · Writers0.15 - 67
Mykhailo Maksymovych1804–1873 · 19th century · Writers0.15 - 68
Nicholas Repnin1734–1801 · 18th century · Writers0.15 - 69
Kirill Razumovsky1728–1803 · 18th century · Politicians0.14 - 70
Grand Duchess Natalya Alexeyevna of Russia1714–1728 · 18th century0.14 - 71
Natalya Alexeevna of Russia1673–1716 · 18th century · Writers0.14 - 72
Nikolai Leskov1831–1895 · 19th century · Writers0.13 - 73
Aleksei Fedorovich Adashev1510–1561 · 16th century · Politicians0.13 - 74
Alexander Shishkov1754–1841 · 18th century · Writers0.13 - 75
Joseph Volotsky1440–1515 · 15th century · Writers0.12 - 76
Alexander Menshikov1673–1729 · 18th century · Politicians0.12 - 77
Nikolay Dobrolyubov1836–1861 · 19th century · Academics0.11 - 78
Ivan the Young1458–1490 · 15th century · Historical Figures0.11 - 79
Konstantin of Uglich1389–1434 · 15th century0.11 - 80
Dmitry Pozharsky1577–1642 · 17th century · Politicians0.11 - 81
Gleb Uspensky1843–1902 · 19th century · Writers0.10
- 82
Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy1645–1729 · 17th century · Writers0.10 - 83
Alexander Suvorov1730–1800 · 18th century0.10
- 84
Grand Duke George Alexandrovich of Russia1871–1899 · 19th century · Historical Figures0.10 - 85
Alexander Ivanov1806–1858 · 19th century · Artists0.10 - 86
Ivan Krylov1769–1844 · 19th century · Writers0.09 - 87
Ivan Dmitriev1760–1837 · 18th century · Writers0.09 - 88
Alexander Sergeyevich Menshikov1787–1869 · 19th century · Politicians0.09 - 89
Mikhail of Tver1271–1318 · 14th century · Politicians0.08 - 90
Peter Ivanovich Shuvalov1711–1762 · 18th century · Politicians0.08 - 91
Maxim Gorky1868–1936 · 20th century · Writers0.08 - 92
Vladimir Odoevsky1803–1869 · 19th century · Writers0.08 - 93
Oleg I of Chernigov1052–1115 · 11th century · Historical Figures0.08 - 94
Mikhail Vorontsov1782–1856 · 19th century · Politicians0.08 - 95
Faddey Bulgarin1789–1859 · 19th century · Writers0.08 - 96
Tikhon of Zadonsk1724–1783 · 18th century · Religious Figures0.08
- 97
Konstantin of Rostov1185–1218 · 13th century · Politicians0.08 - 98
Peter II of Russia1715–1730 · 18th century · Politicians0.08 - 99
Kirill II of Kyiv1250–1280 · 13th century0.08 - 100
Alexander II of Russia1818–1881 · 19th century · Historical Figures0.08
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 19th century, ranked where Wikipedia coverage and readership agree.
#PersonIn print, 1800–2019Echoed
- 1
Abraham Lincoln1809–1865 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians22 decades - 2
Edgar Allan Poe1809–1849 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers17 decades - 3
Thomas Edison1847–1931 · 🇺🇸 United States · Scientists13 decades - 4
Theodore Roosevelt1858–1919 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians16 decades - 5
Mark Twain1835–1910 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers16 decades - 6
James A. Garfield1831–1881 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians16 decades - 7
Henry Ford1863–1947 · 🇺🇸 United States · Founders16 decades - 8
William McKinley1843–1901 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians16 decades - 9
Woodrow Wilson1856–1924 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians14 decades - 10
Ulysses S. Grant1822–1885 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians16 decades - 11
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers13 decades - 12
John D. Rockefeller1839–1937 · 🇺🇸 United States · Founders14 decades - 13
James Buchanan1791–1868 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians22 decades - 14
Alexander Graham Bell1847–1922 · 🇺🇸 United States · Scientists15 decades - 15
Harriet Tubman1821–1913 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers9 decades - 16
Grover Cleveland1837–1908 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians14 decades - 17
Andrew Jackson1767–1845 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians22 decades - 18
Emily Dickinson1830–1886 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers13 decades - 19
Joseph Smith1805–1844 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians22 decades - 20
Robert E. Lee1807–1870 · 🇺🇸 United States · Scientists16 decades - 21
Ralph Waldo Emerson1803–1882 · 🇺🇸 United States · Academics19 decades - 22
Chester A. Arthur1829–1886 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians15 decades - 23
Walt Whitman1819–1892 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers17 decades - 24
Sitting Bull1831–1890 · 🇺🇸 United States15 decades - 25
John Quincy Adams1767–1848 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians22 decades - 26
Herman Melville1819–1891 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers18 decades - 27
Andrew Carnegie1835–1919 · 🇺🇸 United States · Academics14 decades - 28
P. T. Barnum1810–1891 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians17 decades - 29
Andrew Johnson1808–1875 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians22 decades - 30
William Howard Taft1857–1930 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians12 decades - 31
Martin Van Buren1782–1862 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians21 decades - 32
J. P. Morgan1837–1913 · 🇺🇸 United States · Founders16 decades - 33
William Henry Harrison1773–1841 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians22 decades - 34
Billy the Kid1859–1881 · 🇺🇸 United States12 decades - 35
Franklin Pierce1804–1869 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians20 decades - 36
Geronimo1829–1909 · 🇺🇸 United States · Actorsnot measured— - 37
John Dewey1859–1952 · 🇺🇸 United States · Academics14 decades
- 38
Henry James1843–1916 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers18 decades - 39
Jefferson Davis1808–1889 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians20 decades - 40
James K. Polk1795–1849 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians20 decades - 41
William James1842–1910 · 🇺🇸 United States · Academics18 decades - 42
Zachary Taylor1784–1850 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians18 decades - 43
John Tyler1790–1862 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians22 decades - 44
Rutherford B. Hayes1822–1893 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians16 decades - 45
Louisa May Alcott1832–1888 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers14 decades - 46
Frederick Douglass1818–1895 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers18 decades - 47
Nathaniel Hawthorne1804–1864 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers19 decades - 48
Benjamin Harrison1833–1901 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians19 decades - 49
Harriet Beecher Stowe1811–1896 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers17 decades - 50
Millard Fillmore1800–1874 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians19 decades - 51
Samuel Morse1791–1872 · 🇺🇸 United States · Scientists0 decades - 52
John Brown1800–1859 · 🇺🇸 United States · Founders22 decades - 53
George Armstrong Custer1839–1876 · 🇺🇸 United States · Historical Figures7 decades - 54
James Fenimore Cooper1789–1851 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers18 decades - 55
Mary Cassatt1844–1926 · 🇺🇸 United States · Artists12 decades - 56
Edith Wharton1862–1937 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers13 decades - 57
Nellie Bly1864–1922 · 🇺🇸 United States · Journalists13 decades - 58
Levi Strauss1829–1902 · 🇺🇸 United States · Founders11 decades - 59
Jesse James1847–1882 · 🇺🇸 United States14 decades - 60
Washington Irving1783–1859 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers22 decades - 61
John Wilkes Booth1838–1865 · 🇺🇸 United States · Actors16 decades - 62
Brigham Young1801–1877 · 🇺🇸 United States · Academics19 decades - 63
John Singer Sargent1856–1925 · 🇺🇸 United States · Artists11 decades - 64
Ambrose Bierce1842–1914 · 🇺🇸 United States · Journalists13 decades - 65
Charles Sanders Peirce1839–1914 · 🇺🇸 United States · Academics9 decades - 66
Joseph Pulitzer1847–1911 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians14 decades - 67
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1807–1882 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers18 decades - 68
Buffalo Bill1846–1917 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers15 decades - 69
Crazy Horse1849–1877 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians15 decades
- 70
Susan B. Anthony1820–1906 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers16 decades - 71
L. Frank Baum1856–1919 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers8 decades - 72
Sojourner Truth1797–1883 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers13 decades - 73
William Tecumseh Sherman1820–1891 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers14 decades - 74
Jane Addams1860–1935 · 🇺🇸 United States · Academics14 decades - 75
Davy Crockett1786–1836 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians19 decades - 76
John Muir1838–1914 · 🇺🇸 United States · Scientists19 decades - 77
Wilhelm Steinitz1836–1900 · 🇺🇸 United States · Athletes0 decades - 78
John J. Pershing1860–1948 · 🇺🇸 United States · Lawyers12 decades - 79
William Randolph Hearst1863–1951 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians12 decades - 80
James Abbott McNeill Whistler1834–1903 · 🇺🇸 United States · Artists12 decades - 81
Samuel Colt1814–1862 · 🇺🇸 United States · Scientists18 decades - 82
Liliʻuokalani1838–1917 · 🇺🇸 United States · Historical Figuresnot measured— - 83
Frances Hodgson Burnett1849–1924 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers15 decades - 84
Cornelius Vanderbilt1794–1877 · 🇺🇸 United States · Founders18 decades - 85
Stonewall Jackson1824–1863 · 🇺🇸 United States16 decades - 86
Robert Peary1856–1920 · 🇺🇸 United States · Historical Figures3 decades - 87
George Washington Carver1864–1943 · 🇺🇸 United States · Scientists9 decades - 88
Wyatt Earp1848–1929 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians10 decades - 89
Franz Boas1858–1942 · 🇺🇸 United States · Academics14 decades - 90
Frederick Winslow Taylor1856–1915 · 🇺🇸 United States · Scientists8 decades
- 91
John James Audubon1785–1851 · 🇺🇸 United States · Artists19 decades - 92
Sacagawea1788–1812 · 🇺🇸 United States · Historical Figures9 decades - 93
Antonio Meucci1808–1889 · 🇺🇸 United States · Scientists14 decades - 94
Tecumseh1768–1813 · 🇺🇸 United Statesnot measured— - 95
Paul Morphy1837–1884 · 🇺🇸 United States7 decades - 96
John Stith Pemberton1831–1888 · 🇺🇸 United States · Scientists19 decades - 97
Kamehameha I1800–1819 · 🇺🇸 United States · Historical Figures13 decades - 98
Sam Houston1793–1863 · 🇺🇸 United States · Politicians20 decades - 99
Thorstein Veblen1857–1929 · 🇺🇸 United States · Academics11 decades - 100
Robert Fulton1765–1815 · 🇺🇸 United States · Scientists22 decades
How this is measured
- Placing people in time. Each person belongs to the century in which they were most active — around age 35, and never after their death.
- Who ranks highest. Within a century, people are ranked where two independent signals agree: how many of the world’s Wikipedia language editions cover them, and how many people actually read about them. Article counts alone can be lifted by a person’s own circle; readers cannot.
- Fame in print. The curves count how often a name appears in Google Books from 1800 to 2019, as a share of all the words printed each year, in the person’s own language wherever that corpus exists. Those decades are over, so each measurement is made once and kept.
- What is left out. A lifetime is measured only from 1820, when there is enough print to judge; the five years after a death are skipped as obituaries; and a name shared with someone equally notable is credited to neither.