← 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
Zhu Xi870 - 2
Li Hongzhang149 - 3
Zhang Zhidong86 - 4
Zuo Zongtang43 - 5
Ban Gu40 - 6
Ge Hong40 - 7Chen Shou14
- 8
Mao Zedong12 - 9
Lu Xun11
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 19th century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Joseph Lister18 decades - 2
John Snow21 decades - 3
Havelock Ellis14 decades - 4
Ronald Ross13 decades - 5
John Langdon Down0 decades - 6
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson7 decades - 7
Henry Graynot measured- - 8
Frederick Hopkins1 decades - 9
Charles Bell22 decades - 10
Joseph Bellnot measured- - 11
Hudson Taylor14 decades - 12
Thomas Addison12 decades - 13
James Braid7 decades - 14
Anna Kingsford3 decades - 15
Edward Granville Browne0 decades - 16
David Brucenot measured- - 17
Astley Coopernot measured- - 18
Almroth Wrightnot measured- - 19
Edward Albert Sharpey-Schäfernot measured- - 20
Bertrand Dawson, 1st Viscount Dawson of Pennnot measured- - 21
Henry Headnot measured- - 22
Edward Treacher Collinsnot measured- - 23
Agnes McLarennot measured- - 24
Sir Thomas Barlow, 1st Baronetnot measured- - 25
John Kiddnot measured-
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.