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. 1Pavel Tretyakov1832-1898 · Russia · Founders9 decades
  2. 2Savva Mamontov1841-1918 · Russia · Foundersnot measured-
  3. 3Sergei Shchukin1854-1936 · Russia · Foundersnot measured-
  4. 4Haji Zeynal Abdin Taghiyev1838-1924 · Russia · Foundersnot measured-
  5. 5Savva Timofeyevich Morozov1862-1905 · Russia · Foundersnot measured-
  6. 6Alexander Mantashev1842-1911 · Russia · Foundersnot measured-
  7. 7Michael Marks1859-1907 · Russia · Foundersnot measured-
  8. 8Nikola Tereshchenko1819-1903 · Russia · Foundersnot measured-
  9. 9Pavel Nikolaievich Demidov1798-1840 · Russia · Foundersnot measured-
  10. 10Ivan Sytin1851-1934 · Russia · Foundersnot measured-
  11. 11David Wolffsohn1855-1914 · Russia · Foundersnot measured-
  12. 12David Sarajishvili1848-1911 · Russia · Foundersnot measured-
  13. 13Musa Naghiyev1849-1919 · Russia · Foundersnot measured-
  14. 14Nikolay Putilov1820-1880 · Russia · Foundersnot measured-
  15. 15Pavel Pavlovich Demidov, 2nd Prince of San Donato1839-1885 · Russia · Foundersnot measured-
  16. 16Karl Otto Georg von Meck1821-1876 · Russia · Foundersnot measured-
  17. 17Franz San Galli1824-1908 · Russia · Foundersnot measured-
  18. 18Murtuza Mukhtarov1855-1920 · Russia · Foundersnot measured-
  19. 19Samuel Polyakov1837-1888 · Russia · Foundersnot measured-
  20. 20Mikael Aramyants1843-1922 · Russia · Foundersnot measured-
  21. 21Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov1831-1898 · Russia · Foundersnot measured-
  22. 22Aleksey Abrikosov1824-1904 · Russia · Foundersnot measured-
  23. 23Grigorios Maraslis1831-1907 · Russia · Foundersnot measured-
  24. 24Hipolit Wawelberg1844-1901 · Russia · Foundersnot measured-
  25. 25Isa bey Hajinski1861-1919 · Russia · Foundersnot 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.