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. 1Itō Hirobumi1841-1909 · Japan · Politicians0 decades
  2. 2Saigō Takamori1828-1877 · Japan · Politicians0 decades
  3. 3Sakamoto Ryōma1836-1867 · Japan · Politicians0 decades
  4. 4Tōgō Heihachirō1848-1934 · Japan · Politicians0 decades
  5. 5Yamagata Aritomo1838-1922 · Japan · Politicians3 decades
  6. 6Ōkubo Toshimichi1830-1878 · Japan · Politicians0 decades
  7. 7Inukai Tsuyoshi1855-1932 · Japan · Politicians0 decades
  8. 8Katsura Tarō1848-1913 · Japan · Politicians0 decades
  9. 9Ōkuma Shigenobu1838-1922 · Japan · Politicians0 decades
  10. 10Terauchi Masatake1852-1919 · Japan · Politicians0 decades
  11. 11Hara Takashi1856-1921 · Japan · Politicians0 decades
  12. 12Saionji Kinmochi1849-1940 · Japan · Politicians0 decades
  13. 13Nogi Maresuke1849-1912 · Japan · Politicians0 decades
  14. 14Takahashi Korekiyo1854-1936 · Japan · Politicians0 decades
  15. 15Yamamoto Gonnohyōe1852-1933 · Japan · Politicians0 decades
  16. 16Saitō Makoto1858-1936 · Japan · Politicians0 decades
  17. 17Kuroda Kiyotaka1840-1900 · Japan · Politicians0 decades
  18. 18Enomoto Takeaki1836-1908 · Japan · Politicians0 decades
  19. 19Ōyama Iwao1842-1916 · Japan · Politiciansnot measured-
  20. 20Matsukata Masayoshi1835-1924 · Japan · Politicians0 decades
  21. 21Kido Takayoshi1833-1877 · Japan · Politicians0 decades
  22. 22Tanaka Giichi1864-1929 · Japan · Politicians0 decades
  23. 23Yoshida Shōin1830-1859 · Japan · Politicians0 decades
  24. 24Katō Takaaki1860-1926 · Japan · Politicians0 decades
  25. 25Katō Tomosaburō1861-1923 · Japan · Politicians0 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.