← 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
Karl Marx17 decades - 2
Friedrich Nietzsche15 decades - 3
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel21 decades - 4
Carl Friedrich Gauss11 decades - 5
Max Weber15 decades - 6
David Hilbert14 decades - 7
Georg Cantor14 decades - 8
Bernhard Riemann12 decades - 9
Heinrich Schliemann15 decades - 10
Ludwig Feuerbach19 decades - 11
Jacob Grimm21 decades - 12
Wilhelm von Humboldt22 decades - 13
Wilhelm Wundt15 decades - 14
Gottlob Frege9 decades - 15
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling9 decades - 16
Theodor Mommsen18 decades - 17
Max Müller5 decades - 18
Karl Weierstrass8 decades - 19
Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi1 decades - 20
Houston Stewart Chamberlain13 decades - 21
August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben6 decades - 22
Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet0 decades - 23
Felix Klein15 decades - 24
Richard Dedekind8 decades - 25
Bruno Bauer19 decades - 26
August Ferdinand Möbius3 decades - 27
Emil Kraepelin14 decades - 28
Werner Sombart13 decades - 29
Moses Hess10 decades - 30
Franz Brentano16 decades - 31
Ferdinand Tönnies13 decades - 32
Hermann Ebbinghaus7 decades - 33
Rudolf Christoph Eucken15 decades - 34
Friedrich Ratzel15 decades - 35
Adolf von Harnack11 decades - 36
Johann Friedrich Herbart17 decades - 37
Silvio Gesell11 decades - 38
Ferdinand von Lindemann0 decades - 39
Eugen Dühring14 decades - 40
Carl David Tolmé Runge6 decades - 41
Rudolf von Jhering9 decades - 42
Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff13 decades - 43
Konrad Duden10 decades - 44
Hermann Schwarz2 decades - 45
Heinrich Rickert13 decades - 46
Carl Stumpf13 decades - 47
Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen8 decades - 48
Hans Vaihinger13 decades - 49
Theodor Nöldeke16 decades - 50
Johann Friedrich Pfaff0 decades - 51
Oscar Hertwig10 decades - 52
Max Noether2 decades - 53
Adolf Hurwitz4 decades - 54
Franz von Lisztnot measured- - 55
Hermann Diels14 decades - 56
Fritz Mauthner14 decades - 57
Kurt Hensel2 decades - 58
Georg Friedrich Knappnot measured- - 59
Carl Neumann0 decades - 60
Lujo Brentano15 decades - 61
Heinrich Leberecht Fleischernot measured- - 62
Gottfried Reinhold Treviranusnot measured- - 63
Adolf Kußmaulnot measured- - 64
Ernst Schröder13 decades - 65
Friedrich von Esmarchnot measured- - 66
Hermann Gunkel12 decades - 67
Wilhelm Killing0 decades - 68
Otto Hirschfeldnot measured- - 69Karl Büchernot measured-
- 70
Moritz Cantor6 decades - 71
Georg Dehionot measured- - 72
Hermann Paul15 decades - 73
Philipp von Jollynot measured- - 74
Heinrich Wilhelm Gottfried von Waldeyer-Hartznot measured- - 75
Karl Bindingnot measured-
- 76
Franz Nisslnot measured- - 77
Otto Frankenot measured- - 78
Karl Mollweidenot measured- - 79
Hans von Mangoldtnot measured- - 80
Arthur Moritz Schoenfliesnot measured- - 81
Martin Haugnot measured- - 82Johannes Volkeltnot measured-
- 83
Hermann Oldenberg12 decades - 84
Rudolf Buchheimnot measured- - 85
Heinrich Peschnot measured- - 86
Richard Semonnot measured- - 87
Walther von Dycknot measured- - 88
Princess Marie of Windisch-Graetznot measured- - 89Karl Groosnot measured-
- 90Karl Friedrich Geldnernot measured-
- 91
Rudolf Kittelnot measured- - 92Fritz Hommelnot measured-
- 93
Paul Gustav Heinrich Bachmannnot measured- - 94
Friedrich Sigmund Merkelnot measured- - 95
Henry Thodenot measured- - 96
Gustav Teichmüllernot measured- - 97
Hans Friedrich Gadownot measured- - 98
Georg Wissowanot measured- - 99
Karl Friedrich Hermannnot measured- - 100
Heinrich Dresselnot 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.