← 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 English books during the 19th century, whenever they lived.
- 1
Jesus94 - 2
Homer15 - 3
Cicero13 - 4
Augustus13 - 5
Plato10 - 6
Virgil9.6 - 7
Aristotle9.4 - 8
Socrates6.4 - 9
Herodotus6.2 - 10
Plutarch5.6 - 11
Ovid4.2 - 12
Strabo4.1 - 13
Charlemagne3.9 - 14
Demosthenes3.8 - 15
Lord Byron3.6 - 16
Livy3.4 - 17
Origen3.1 - 18
Cleopatra3.0 - 19
Xenophon3.0 - 20
Walter Scott3.0 - 21
Tertullian2.7 - 22
James II, Count of Urgell2.6 - 23
Robert Peel2.6 - 24
Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor2.6 - 25
Pericles2.5
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 19th century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Louis Pasteur14 decades - 2
Pierre Curie13 decades - 3
Gustave Eiffel10 decades - 4
Rudolf Diesel10 decades - 5
Louis Braille14 decades - 6
André-Marie Ampère15 decades - 7
Nicéphore Niépce6 decades - 8
Henri Becquerel15 decades - 9
Georges Cuvier21 decades - 10
Louis Daguerre1 decades - 11
Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnotnot measured- - 12
Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii0 decades - 13
Augustin-Jean Fresnel15 decades - 14
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussacnot measured- - 15
Léon Foucault14 decades - 16
Élie Metchnikoffnot measured- - 17
Camille Flammarion16 decades - 18
Clément Ader11 decades - 19
Urbain Le Verrier4 decades - 20
Marcellin Berthelot15 decades - 21
Gabriel Lippmann7 decades - 22
Henri Moissan8 decades - 23
Michel Eugène Chevreul1 decades - 24
Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinvillenot measured- - 25
Jean Eugène Robert-Houdinnot measured- - 26
Jean-Baptiste Biot3 decades - 27
Louis Le Princenot measured- - 28
Henry Louis Le Chatelier12 decades - 29
Claude-Louis Navier0 decades - 30
Étienne-Jules Marey3 decades - 31
Pierre Janssen3 decades - 32
Paul Vidal de La Blache3 decades - 33
Augustin Pyramus de Candolle3 decades - 34
Edmond Becquerel14 decades - 35
Paul Sabatier14 decades - 36
Pierre Duhem12 decades - 37
Marc Isambard Brunelnot measured- - 38
Guillaume Henri Dufour0 decades - 39
Jean-Baptiste Dumas14 decades - 40
Benoît Paul Émile Clapeyron0 decades - 41
André-Jacques Garnerin0 decades - 42
Alcide d'Orbigny0 decades - 43
Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie0 decades - 44
Marc Seguin16 decades - 45
Édouard Branly3 decades - 46
André Michelin6 decades - 47
Roland Bonaparte14 decades - 48
Émile Baudot0 decades - 49
Armand David8 decades - 50
Louis Lumière13 decades - 51
Antoine Béchampnot measured- - 52
Éleuthère Irénée du Pontnot measured- - 53
Charles Joseph Minardnot measured- - 54
Jeanne Villepreux-Powernot measured- - 55
Louis Jacques Thénard0 decades - 56
Fulgence Bienvenüenot measured- - 57
Henri Giffard4 decades - 58
Henry Darcy0 decades - 59
Édouard-Alfred Martelnot measured- - 60
François-Vincent Raspailnot measured- - 61
Jean Charles Athanase Peltiernot measured- - 62
Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainvillenot measured- - 63
Henri Mouhot8 decades - 64
Antoine César Becquerel0 decades - 65
Victor Loret9 decades - 66
Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudrannot measured- - 67
Charles-Adolphe Wurtz0 decades - 68
Jacques Curienot measured- - 69
Octave Chanutenot measured- - 70
Bernard Courtois1 decades - 71
Charles Frédéric Gerhardt5 decades - 72
Adolphe Alphand2 decades - 73
Léon Gaumontnot measured- - 74
Charles Barbier de La Serrenot measured- - 75
Augustin Saint-Hilaire14 decades - 76
Auguste Lumièrenot measured- - 77
Charles Friedel7 decades - 78
Jacques-Arsène d'Arsonval4 decades - 79
Auguste Bravais1 decades - 80
Claude Pouilletnot measured- - 81
Gaston Planté8 decades - 82
Édouard Roche0 decades - 83
Félix Savart3 decades - 84
Antoine Jérôme Balard0 decades - 85
Claude Gaynot measured- - 86Pierre-François Bouchardnot measured-
- 87
Paul Héroult0 decades - 88
Frédéric Cuvier19 decades - 89
Anatoly Nikolaievich Demidov, 1st Prince of San Donatonot measured- - 90
Alexandre Brongniart22 decades - 91
Casimir Lefaucheuxnot measured- - 92
Maurice Koechlinnot measured- - 93
Henri Victor Regnault7 decades - 94
Hippolyte Mège-Mourièsnot measured- - 95
Gustave Trouvénot measured- - 96
Alexis Bouvard0 decades - 97
Léon Charles Théveninnot measured- - 98
Louis de Freycinetnot measured- - 99
Paul Ulrich Villard1 decades - 100
Anselme Payen0 decades
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.