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 Chinese books during the 19th century — whenever they lived.
In books written inEnglish18,114German3,599French3,347Italian1,787Spanish1,162Russian325Hebrew105Chinese9
#PersonIn print, 1800–2019Per million words
- 1
Zhu Xi1130–1200 · 12th century · 🇨🇳 China · Writers870 - 2
Li Hongzhang1823–1901 · 19th century · 🇨🇳 China · Politicians149 - 3
Zhang Zhidong1837–1909 · 19th century · Politicians86 - 4
Zuo Zongtang1812–1885 · 19th century · 🇨🇳 China · Politicians43 - 5
Ban Gu32–92 · 1st century · Writers40 - 6
Ge Hong284–364 · 4th century · Academics40 - 7CSChen Shou233–297 · 3rd century · Writers14
- 8
Mao Zedong1893–1976 · 20th century · 🇨🇳 China · Politicians12 - 9
Lu Xun1881–1936 · 20th century · 🇨🇳 China · Writers11
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
Émile Gallé1846–1904 · 🇫🇷 France · Founders7 decades - 2
_cropped.jpg?width=1200)
Basil Zaharoff1849–1936 · 🇫🇷 France · Founders7 decades - 3
Armand Peugeot1849–1915 · 🇫🇷 France · Foundersnot measured— - 4
Maurice de Hirsch1831–1896 · 🇫🇷 France · Founders3 decades - 5
Madame Clicquot Ponsardin1777–1866 · 🇫🇷 France · Foundersnot measured— - 6
.png?width=1200)
François Hennebique1842–1921 · 🇫🇷 France · Foundersnot measured— - 7
Alexandre Darracq1855–1931 · 🇫🇷 France · Foundersnot measured— - 8
.jpg?width=1200)
Pierre-Émile Martin1824–1915 · 🇫🇷 France · Foundersnot measured— - 9
Aristide Boucicaut1810–1877 · 🇫🇷 France · Foundersnot measured— - 10
Jean-François Cail1804–1871 · 🇫🇷 France · Foundersnot measured— - 11
Ferdinand Barbedienne1810–1892 · 🇫🇷 France · Foundersnot measured— - 12
Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe1846–1919 · 🇫🇷 France · Foundersnot measured— - 13
Théodore Deck1823–1891 · 🇫🇷 France · Foundersnot measured— - 14
.png?width=1200)
Paulin Talabot1799–1885 · 🇫🇷 France · Foundersnot measured— - 15
Jacques Triger1801–1867 · 🇫🇷 France · Foundersnot measured— - 16
Émile Delahaye1843–1905 · 🇫🇷 France · Foundersnot measured— - 17
Fernand Renault1864–1909 · 🇫🇷 France · Foundersnot measured— - 18
Philibert Vrau1829–1905 · 🇫🇷 France · Foundersnot measured— - 19
Eugène Rimmel1821–1887 · 🇫🇷 France · Foundersnot measured— - 20
Victor-Auguste Poulain1825–1918 · 🇫🇷 France · Foundersnot measured— - 21
François Jacques de Larderel1790–1858 · 🇫🇷 France · Foundersnot measured— - 22
Charles Christofle1805–1863 · 🇫🇷 France · Foundersnot measured— - 23
_(14791179373).jpg?width=1200)
James Nathan de Rothschild1844–1881 · 🇫🇷 France · Foundersnot measured— - 24JAJean-Claude-Républicain Arnoux1792–1866 · 🇫🇷 France · Foundersnot measured—
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.