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. 1Wilhelm II, German Emperor1859-1941 · Germany · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  2. 2Empress Elisabeth of Austria1837-1898 · Germany · Historical Figures0 decades
  3. 3William I, German Emperor1797-1888 · Germany · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  4. 4Ludwig II of Bavaria1845-1886 · Germany · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  5. 5Leopold I of Belgium1790-1865 · Germany · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  6. 6Albert, Prince Consort1819-1861 · Germany · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  7. 7Frederick William III of Prussia1770-1840 · Germany · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  8. 8Christian IX of Denmark1818-1906 · Germany · Historical Figures16 decades
  9. 9August von Mackensen1849-1945 · Germany · Historical Figures2 decades
  10. 10Carol I of Romania1839-1914 · Germany · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  11. 11Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld1786-1861 · Germany · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  12. 12Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine1863-1950 · Germany · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  13. 13Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz1776-1810 · Germany · Historical Figures0 decades
  14. 14Helmuth von Moltke the Younger1848-1916 · Germany · Historical Figures0 decades
  15. 15Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine1864-1918 · Germany · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  16. 16Louise of Hesse-Kassel1817-1898 · Germany · Historical Figures0 decades
  17. 17Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria1821-1912 · Germany · Historical Figures19 decades
  18. 18Victoria of Baden1862-1930 · Germany · Historical Figures0 decades
  19. 19Maria Sophie of Bavaria1841-1925 · Germany · Historical Figures0 decades
  20. 20Princess Ludovika of Bavaria1808-1892 · Germany · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  21. 21Prince Louis of Battenberg1854-1921 · Germany · Historical Figures0 decades
  22. 22Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha1818-1893 · Germany · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  23. 23Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg1817-1905 · Germany · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  24. 24Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge1833-1897 · Germany · Historical Figures0 decades
  25. 25Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach1811-1890 · Germany · Historical Figuresnot measured-
Show 65 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.