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. 1Kikunae Ikeda1864-1936 · Japan · Scientists0 decades
  2. 2Tomitaro Makino1862-1957 · Japan · Scientistsnot measured-
  3. 3Tanaka Hisashige1799-1881 · Japan · Scientistsnot measured-
  4. 4Takamine Jōkichi1854-1922 · Japan · Scientistsnot measured-
  5. 5Arisaka Nariakira1852-1915 · Japan · Scientistsnot measured-
  6. 6Nagai Nagayoshi1844-1929 · Japan · Scientistsnot measured-
  7. 7Aikitu Tanakadate1856-1952 · Japan · Scientistsnot measured-
  8. 8Itō Keisuke1803-1901 · Japan · Scientistsnot measured-
  9. 9Kunitomo Ikkansai1778-1840 · Japan · Scientistsnot measured-
  10. 10Udagawa Yōan1798-1846 · Japan · Scientistsnot measured-
  11. 11Yamakawa Kenjirō1854-1931 · Japan · Scientistsnot measured-
  12. 12Tanaka Yoshio1838-1916 · Japan · Scientistsnot measured-
  13. 13Ryōkichi Yatabe1851-1899 · Japan · Scientistsnot measured-
  14. 14Kingo Miyabe1860-1951 · Japan · Scientistsnot measured-
  15. 15Iinuma Yokusai1782-1865 · Japan · Scientistsnot measured-
  16. 16Satori Kato1847-1902 · Japan · Scientistsnot measured-
  17. 17Hirase Sakugorō1856-1925 · Japan · Scientistsnot measured-
  18. 18Shohé Tanaka1862-1945 · Japan · Scientistsnot measured-
  19. 19Zeniya Gohei1774-1852 · Japan · Scientistsnot measured-
  20. 20Mitsutaro Shirai1863-1932 · Japan · Scientistsnot measured-
  21. 21Shimose Masachika1860-1911 · Japan · Scientistsnot measured-
  22. 22Hokkai Takashima1850-1931 · Japan · Scientistsnot measured-
  23. 23Kotō Bunjirō1856-1935 · Japan · Scientistsnot measured-
  24. 24Terao Hisashi1855-1923 · Japan · Scientistsnot measured-
  25. 25Miyoshi Manabu1862-1939 · Japan · Scientistsnot measured-
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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.