← 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
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.