← 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
Edward Elgar13 decades - 2
Emma, Lady Hamilton1 decades - 3
Frederick Delius8 decades - 4
Ethel Smyth11 decades - 5
Hubert Parry12 decades - 6
Anna Brownell Jamesonnot measured- - 7
Edward Germannot measured- - 8
Alison Skipworthnot measured- - 9
George Henschelnot measured- - 10
Emánuel Moórnot measured- - 11
Frederic Hymen Cowennot measured- - 12
Arthur Somervellnot measured- - 13
Tobias Matthaynot measured- - 14
Leslie Stuartnot measured- - 15
Frederick Cordernot measured- - 16
Sidney Jonesnot measured- - 17
Marie Tempestnot measured- - 18
Isidore de Laranot measured- - 19
Maude Valérie Whitenot measured- - 20
Clara Novello Daviesnot measured-
- 21
Louis Beethoven Proutnot measured- - 22
Beauvoir De Lislenot measured- - 23
Herbert Boothnot measured- - 24
Marjory Kennedy-Frasernot measured- - 25
Adrian Rossnot 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.