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. 1Pope Leo XIII1810-1903 · Italy · Religious Figures15 decades
  2. 2Giuseppe Verdi1813-1901 · Italy · Musicians18 decades
  3. 3Gabriele D'Annunzio1863-1938 · Italy · Writers14 decades
  4. 4Pope Pius IX1792-1878 · Italy · Religious Figures18 decades
  5. 5Giacomo Leopardi1798-1837 · Italy · Writers22 decades
  6. 6Pope Pius X1835-1914 · Italy · Religious Figures12 decades
  7. 7Giacomo Puccini1858-1924 · Italy · Musicians15 decades
  8. 8Pope Benedict XV1854-1922 · Italy · Religious Figures11 decades
  9. 9Niccolò Paganini1782-1840 · Italy · Musicians18 decades
  10. 10Gioachino Rossini1792-1868 · Italy · Musicians20 decades
  11. 11Giuseppe Mazzini1805-1872 · Italy · Activists20 decades
  12. 12Umberto I of Italy1844-1900 · Italy · Historical Figures14 decades
  13. 13Alessandro Manzoni1785-1873 · Italy · Writers22 decades
  14. 14John Bosco1815-1888 · Italy · Religious Figures16 decades
  15. 15Victor Emmanuel II of Italy1820-1878 · Italy · Historical Figures12 decades
  16. 16Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour1810-1861 · Italy · Politicians10 decades
  17. 17Pope Gregory XVI1765-1846 · Italy · Religious Figures19 decades
  18. 18Giosuè Carducci1835-1907 · Italy · Writers17 decades
  19. 19Carlo Collodi1826-1890 · Italy · Writers8 decades
  20. 20Amadeo I of Spain1845-1890 · Italy · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  21. 21Vincenzo Bellini1801-1835 · Italy · Musicians22 decades
  22. 22Gaetano Donizetti1797-1848 · Italy · Musicians19 decades
  23. 23Emilio Salgari1862-1911 · Italy · Writers13 decades
  24. 24Cesare Lombroso1835-1909 · Italy · Doctors16 decades
  25. 25Amedeo Avogadro1776-1856 · Italy · Scientists19 decades
Show 75 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.