← 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
Theodor Herzl13 decades - 2
Ambrose Bierce13 decades - 3
Nellie Bly13 decades - 4
Henry Morton Stanley7 decades - 5
Ida B. Wells6 decades - 6
Henry Adams19 decades - 7
William Lloyd Garrison19 decades - 8
Wilhelm Liebknecht13 decades - 9
Frederick Law Olmsted16 decades - 10
Melvil Dewey15 decades - 11
Carrie Chapman Catt12 decades - 12
Ida Tarbell12 decades - 13
Walter Bagehot16 decades - 14
Lucy Stone17 decades - 15
William Thomas Stead0 decades - 16
Matilda Joslyn Gage5 decades - 17
Jules Vallès16 decades - 18
Nicolás Avellaneda17 decades - 19
Matilde Serao15 decades - 20
Isabella Beeton0 decades - 21
Benjamin Tuckernot measured- - 22
Ernesto Teodoro Moneta11 decades - 23
Dmitry Pisarev10 decades - 24
Andrew Barton Paterson0 decades - 25
Jules Guesde14 decades - 26
Charles Dow0 decades - 27
Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr19 decades - 28
Lucy Parsons2 decades - 29
Draga Mašinnot measured- - 30
Lysander Spooner2 decades - 31
Moses Montefiore19 decades - 32
Soh Jaipilnot measured- - 33
Anton Delvig6 decades - 34
Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire14 decades - 35
Carlos Pellegrini15 decades - 36
Hubertine Auclert7 decades - 37
Johannes Zukertort0 decades - 38
Élie Ducommun0 decades - 39
Gaetano Mosca14 decades - 40
Vladimir Gilyarovsky5 decades - 41
Amelia Bloomer6 decades - 42
Joel Chandler Harris14 decades - 43
Édouard Drumont14 decades - 44
Victor Noirnot measured- - 45
Luigi Capuana15 decades - 46
Bertha Pappenheim6 decades - 47
Francesco Maria Piave15 decades - 48
Ignacio Manuel Altamirano15 decades - 49
Cristina Trivulzio Belgiojoso1 decades - 50
Wilhelm Marr10 decades - 51
Simon Bolivar Buckner1 decades - 52
Rufus Wilmot Griswold0 decades - 53
Rifa'a at-Tahtawi0 decades - 54
Alexandre Herculano0 decades - 55
Daniel De Leon8 decades - 56
Mikhail Katkov4 decades - 57
Enrico Ferri15 decades - 58
Jean-Lambert Tallien0 decades - 59
Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko0 decades - 60
Henri Rochefort17 decades - 61
Sen Katayama0 decades - 62
Helen Churchill Candeenot measured- - 63
Louis Charles Delescluzenot measured- - 64
Gideon Wellesnot measured- - 65
August Vincent Theodore Spiesnot measured- - 66
Alfred Hermann Fried3 decades - 67
Nathaniel Parker Willisnot measured- - 68
Helen Hunt Jackson14 decades - 69
Pieter Jelles Troelstra0 decades - 70
Maurice Jolynot measured- - 71
Mariano Morenonot measured- - 72
Louise Otto-Petersnot measured- - 73
Nathan Birnbaumnot measured- - 74
Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir0 decades - 75
Albert Parsonsnot measured- - 76
Georgi Rakovskinot measured- - 77
William Lyon Mackenzienot measured- - 78
Michael Davittnot measured- - 79
William Howard Russell10 decades - 80
Bibi Khanoom Astarabadinot measured- - 81
Friedrich Albert Lange15 decades - 82
Henry Jarvis Raymondnot measured- - 83
Edwin Arnold17 decades - 84
José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardinot measured- - 85
Maximilian Hardennot measured- - 86
José María de Pereda16 decades - 87
Alice Stone Blackwell7 decades - 88
Charles-Louis Havasnot measured- - 89
Félix Fénéon13 decades - 90
Bharatendu Harishchandranot measured- - 91
Aleko Konstantinov0 decades - 92
Manuel Murillo Toronot measured- - 93
Adolph Ochsnot measured- - 94
Bat Mastersonnot measured- - 95
Anna Maria Mozzoninot measured- - 96
Aleksey Suvorinnot measured- - 97
Arne Garborg0 decades - 98
Sydney Smith22 decades - 99
Laurence Oliphantnot measured- - 100
Luiz Gamanot 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.