← 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
Emperor Meiji11 decades - 2
Itō Hirobumi0 decades - 3
Saigō Takamori0 decades - 4
Emperor Kōmei0 decades - 5
Lafcadio Hearn14 decades - 6
Hiroshigenot measured- - 7
Tokugawa Yoshinobu0 decades - 8
Sakamoto Ryōma0 decades - 9
Kanō Jigorō0 decades - 10
Tōgō Heihachirō0 decades - 11
Emperor Kōkakunot measured- - 12
Emperor Ninkōnot measured- - 13
Yamagata Aritomo3 decades - 14
Fukuzawa Yukichi7 decades - 15
Ōkubo Toshimichi0 decades - 16
Mori Ōgai0 decades - 17
Inukai Tsuyoshi0 decades - 18
Kitasato Shibasaburō0 decades - 19
Katsura Tarō0 decades - 20
Ōkuma Shigenobu0 decades - 21
Utagawa Kuniyoshi0 decades - 22
Terauchi Masatake0 decades - 23
Hara Takashi0 decades - 24Fusajirō Yamauchinot measured-
- 25
Tokugawa Iemochi0 decades - 26
Saionji Kinmochi0 decades - 27
Nogi Maresuke0 decades - 28
Takahashi Korekiyo0 decades - 29
Yamamoto Gonnohyōe0 decades - 30
Saitō Makoto0 decades - 31
Empress Shōken0 decades - 32
Kuroda Kiyotaka0 decades - 33
Iwasaki Yatarō0 decades - 34
Ichiyō Higuchinot measured- - 35
Enomoto Takeaki0 decades - 36
Ōyama Iwaonot measured- - 37
Nitobe Inazō0 decades - 38
Matsukata Masayoshi0 decades - 39
Tokugawa Iesada0 decades - 40
Tokugawa Ieyoshi0 decades - 41
Kido Takayoshi0 decades - 42
Tanaka Giichi0 decades - 43
Yoshida Shōin0 decades - 44
Tokugawa Ienari0 decades - 45
Katō Takaaki0 decades - 46
Yoshitoshinot measured- - 47
Katō Tomosaburō0 decades - 48
Katsu Kaishū0 decades - 49
Itagaki Taisuke0 decades - 50
Kondō Isaminot measured- - 51
Okita Sōjinot measured- - 52
Kikunae Ikeda0 decades - 53
Kiyoura Keigo0 decades - 54
Okakura Kakuzō0 decades - 55
Sanjō Sanetomi0 decades - 56
Kusumoto Inenot measured- - 57
Utagawa Kunisada0 decades - 58
Iwakura Tomomi0 decades - 59
Nakano Takekonot measured- - 60
Shibusawa Eiichinot measured- - 61
Ii Naosuke0 decades - 62
Torakusu Yamaha0 decades - 63
Takasugi Shinsakunot measured- - 64
Sen Katayama0 decades - 65
Tsuda Umeko0 decades - 66
Saitō Hajimenot measured- - 67
Takeda Sōkakunot measured- - 68
Futabatei Shimei0 decades - 69
Inoue Kaoru0 decades - 70
Gotō Shinpei0 decades - 71
Nobu Shirase0 decades - 72
Matsudaira Katamorinot measured- - 73
Honinbo Shusakunot measured- - 74
Tsubouchi Shōyō0 decades - 75
Kabayama Sukenorinot measured- - 76
Sakuma Shōzannot measured- - 77
Mikimoto Kōkichinot measured- - 78
Akashi Motojironot measured- - 79
Tomitaro Makinonot measured- - 80
Tanaka Hisashigenot measured- - 81
Ito Sukeyukinot measured- - 82
Hirata Atsutanenot measured- - 83
Nakahama Manjirōnot measured- - 84
Saigō Tsugumichinot measured- - 85
Nakayama Yoshikonot measured- - 86
Tokugawa Nariakinot measured- - 87
Shōjirō Gotōnot measured- - 88
Ninomiya Sontokunot measured- - 89
Ankō Itosunot measured- - 90
Keisai Eisennot measured- - 91
Abe Masahironot measured- - 92
Mutsu Munemitsunot measured- - 93
Mori Arinorinot measured- - 94
Makino Nobuakinot measured- - 95
Takamine Jōkichinot measured- - 96
Kuroki Tamemotonot measured- - 97
Yukio Ozakinot measured- - 98
Kanzō Uchimuranot measured- - 99
Kawakami Gensainot measured- - 100
Ogino Ginkonot 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.