216,588 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. 1Lafcadio Hearn1850-1904 · Japan · Writers14 decades
  2. 2Mori Ōgai1862-1922 · Japan · Writers0 decades
  3. 3Ichiyō Higuchi1872-1896 · Japan · Writersnot measured-
  4. 4Okakura Kakuzō1863-1913 · Japan · Writers0 decades
  5. 5Futabatei Shimei1864-1909 · Japan · Writers0 decades
  6. 6Tsubouchi Shōyō1859-1935 · Japan · Writers0 decades
  7. 7Hirata Atsutane1776-1843 · Japan · Writersnot measured-
  8. 8Kanzō Uchimura1861-1930 · Japan · Writersnot measured-
  9. 9Kitamura Tokoku1868-1894 · Japan · Writersnot measured-
  10. 10Ōshio Heihachirō1793-1837 · Japan · Writersnot measured-
  11. 11Komura Jutarō1855-1911 · Japan · Writersnot measured-
  12. 12Rai San'yo1780-1832 · Japan · Writersnot measured-
  13. 13Jippensha Ikku1765-1831 · Japan · Writersnot measured-
  14. 14Tokutomi Sohō1863-1957 · Japan · Writersnot measured-
  15. 15Hayashi Tadasu1850-1913 · Japan · Writersnot measured-
  16. 16Kazuo Hatoyama1856-1911 · Japan · Writersnot measured-
  17. 17Itō Sachio1864-1913 · Japan · Writersnot measured-
  18. 18Nabeshima Naohiro1846-1921 · Japan · Writersnot measured-
  19. 19Sone Arasuke1849-1910 · Japan · Writersnot measured-
  20. 20Ōtsuki Fumihiko1847-1928 · Japan · Writersnot measured-
  21. 21Kume Kunitake1839-1931 · Japan · Writersnot measured-
  22. 22Nakamura Masanao1832-1891 · Japan · Writersnot measured-
  23. 23Shiba Gorō1860-1945 · Japan · Writersnot measured-
  24. 24Nishi Tokujirō1847-1912 · Japan · Writersnot measured-
  25. 25Satō Nobuhiro1769-1850 · Japan · Writersnot measured-
Show 39 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.