215,950 profiles ranked

← Fame through time1800-1899

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 Chinese books during the 19th century, whenever they lived.

  1. 1Zhu Xi1130-1200 · 12th century · China · Writers870
  2. 2Li Hongzhang1823-1901 · 19th century · China · Politicians149
  3. 3Zhang Zhidong1837-1909 · 19th century · Politicians86
  4. 4Zuo Zongtang1812-1885 · 19th century · China · Politicians43
  5. 5Ban Gu32-92 · 1st century · Writers40
  6. 6Ge Hong284-364 · 4th century · Academics40
  7. 7Chen Shou233-297 · 3rd century · Writers14
  8. 8Mao Zedong1893-1976 · 20th century · China · Politicians12
  9. 9Lu Xun1881-1936 · 20th century · China · Writers11

Lived then

The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 19th century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.

  1. 1Ludwig Boltzmann1844-1906 · Austria · Scientists15 decades
  2. 2Ferdinand I of Bulgaria1861-1948 · Austria · Scientists0 decades
  3. 3Daniel Swarovski1862-1956 · Austria · Scientists0 decades
  4. 4Josef Stefan1835-1893 · Austria · Scientists4 decades
  5. 5Carl Auer von Welsbach1858-1929 · Austria · Scientists0 decades
  6. 6Georg Luger1849-1923 · Austria · Scientists0 decades
  7. 7Johann Palisa1848-1925 · Austria · Scientists0 decades
  8. 8Franz S. Exner1849-1926 · Austria · Scientistsnot measured-
  9. 9Gottlieb Haberlandt1854-1945 · Austria · Scientistsnot measured-
  10. 10Julius von Hann1839-1921 · Austria · Scientistsnot measured-
  11. 11Franz Unger1800-1870 · Austria · Scientistsnot measured-
  12. 12Friedrich Reinitzer1857-1927 · Austria · Scientistsnot measured-
  13. 13Richard Wettstein1863-1931 · Austria · Scientistsnot measured-
  14. 14Otto Stapf1857-1933 · Austria · Scientistsnot measured-
  15. 15Oskar Lenz1848-1925 · Austria · Scientistsnot measured-
  16. 16Ernst Lecher1856-1926 · Austria · Scientistsnot measured-
  17. 17Viktor von Lang1838-1921 · Austria · Scientistsnot measured-
  18. 18Josef Maria Eder1855-1944 · Austria · Scientistsnot measured-
  19. 19Rudolf Schrödinger1857-1919 · Austria · Scientistsnot measured-
  20. 20Ludwig von Höhnel1857-1942 · Austria · Scientistsnot measured-
  21. 21Hans Molisch1856-1937 · Austria · Scientistsnot measured-
  22. 22Max von Gruber1853-1927 · Austria · Scientistsnot measured-
  23. 23Günther Beck von Mannagetta und Lerchenau1856-1931 · Austria · Scientistsnot measured-
  24. 24Karl Fritsch1864-1934 · Austria · Scientistsnot measured-
  25. 25Samuel Oppenheim1857-1928 · Austria · Scientistsnot measured-
Show 36 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.