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. 1Umberto I of Italy1844-1900 · Italy · Historical Figures14 decades
  2. 2Victor Emmanuel II of Italy1820-1878 · Italy · Historical Figures12 decades
  3. 3Amadeo I of Spain1845-1890 · Italy · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  4. 4Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies1806-1878 · Italy · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  5. 5Charles Felix of Savoy1765-1831 · Italy · Historical Figures0 decades
  6. 6Robert I, Duke of Parma1848-1907 · Italy · Historical Figures0 decades
  7. 7Giovanni Battista Belzoni1778-1823 · Italy · Historical Figures4 decades
  8. 8Prince Henry of Battenberg1858-1896 · Italy · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  9. 9Princess Maria Clotilde of Savoy1843-1911 · Italy · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  10. 10Princess Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma1870-1899 · Italy · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  11. 11Princess Maria Antonia of the Two Sicilies1814-1898 · Italy · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  12. 12Prince Alfonso, Count of Caserta1841-1934 · Italy · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  13. 13Princess Margherita of Parma1847-1893 · Italy · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  14. 14Princess Alice of Parma1849-1935 · Italy · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  15. 15Princess Maria Pia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies1849-1882 · Italy · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  16. 16Prince Louis, Count of Trani1838-1886 · Italy · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  17. 17Prince Henry, Count of Bardi1851-1905 · Italy · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  18. 18Vittorio Bottego1860-1897 · Italy · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  19. 19Jean-Antoine Carrel1829-1890 · Italy · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  20. 20Giuseppe Ferlini1797-1870 · Italy · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  21. 21Tommaso Salvadori1835-1923 · Italy · Historical Figures10 decades
  22. 22Umberto Cagni1863-1932 · Italy · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  23. 23Romolo Gessi1831-1881 · Italy · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  24. 24Giacomo Bove1852-1887 · Italy · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  25. 25Prince Pasquale, Count of Bari1852-1904 · Italy · Historical Figuresnot measured-
Show 18 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.