215,950 profiles ranked

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Famous after death

People whose names were printed far more after they died than while they lived, ranked by the share of all their mentions in print that came after death. Measured in their own language, and counted from five years on, so the obituaries do not count.

CenturyAll19th1,78220th1,31321st3
  1. 1Zuo Zongtang1812-1885 · 19th century · China · Politicians100%
  2. 2Hong Xiuquan1814-1864 · 19th century · China · Politicians100%
  3. 3Bruce Lee1940-1973 · 20th century · United States · Actors100%
  4. 4Tan Sitong1865-1898 · 19th century · China · Academics100%
  5. 5Lin Tse-hsu1785-1850 · 19th century · Politicians100%
  6. 6Zeng Guofan1811-1872 · 19th century · China · Politicians100%
  7. 7Sergey Solovyov1820-1879 · 19th century · Russia · Writers100%
  8. 8Louis Vuitton1821-1892 · 19th century · France · Designers100%
  9. 9Marie Bashkirtseva1860-1884 · 19th century · France · Artists100%
  10. 10Shoqan Walikhanov1835-1865 · 19th century · Russia · Academics100%
  11. 11Alexander Ulyanov1866-1887 · 19th century · Russia · Activists100%
  12. 12Abraham Goldfaden1840-1908 · 19th century · Russia · Writers100%
  13. 13Mikhail Alekseyev1857-1918 · 19th century · Russia · Politicians100%
  14. 14Abay Kunanbaiuly1845-1904 · 19th century · Russia · Writers100%
  15. 15Christian Dietrich Grabbe1801-1836 · 19th century · Germany · Writers100%
  16. 16Vladimir Stasov1824-1906 · 19th century · Russia100%
  17. 17Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky1840-1893 · 19th century · Russia · Musicians100%
  18. 18Ivan Vazov1850-1921 · 19th century · Bulgaria · Writers100%
  19. 19Fyodor Tyutchev1803-1873 · 19th century · Russia · Writers100%
  20. 20Nikolai Ge1831-1894 · 19th century · Russia · Artists100%
  21. 21Natalia Pushkina1812-1863 · 19th century · Russia100%
  22. 22Valentin Serov1865-1911 · 20th century · Russia · Artists100%
  23. 23Nikolai Lobachevsky1792-1856 · 19th century · Russia · Academics100%
  24. 24Stepan Makarov1849-1904 · 19th century · Russia · Scientists100%
  25. 25Nikolai Rubinstein1835-1881 · 19th century · Russia · Musicians100%
  26. 26Pyotr Chaadayev1794-1856 · 19th century · Russia · Academics100%
  27. 27Kondraty Ryleyev1795-1826 · 19th century · Russia · Writers100%
  28. 28Alexander Kovalevsky1840-1901 · 19th century · Russia · Academics100%
  29. 29Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows1838-1862 · 19th century · Italy100%
  30. 30Wilhelm Küchelbecker1797-1846 · 19th century · Russia · Writers100%
  31. 31Wild Bill Hickok1837-1876 · 19th century · United States · Athletes100%
  32. 32Vasily Surikov1848-1916 · 19th century · Russia · Artists100%
  33. 33Pyotr Lavrov1823-1900 · 19th century · France · Academics100%
  34. 34Alexander Kolchak1874-1920 · 20th century · Russia · Politicians100%
  35. 35Pavel Pestel1793-1826 · 19th century · Russia · Activists100%
  36. 36Ivan Kramskoi1837-1887 · 19th century · Russia · Artists100%
  37. 37Mikhail Vrubel1856-1910 · 19th century · Russia · Artists100%
  38. 38Alexei Khomyakov1804-1860 · 19th century · Russia · Academics100%
  39. 39Eduard Meyer1855-1930 · 19th century · Academics100%
  40. 40Aleksey Koltsov1809-1842 · 19th century · Russia · Writers100%
  41. 41Mirza Fatali Akhundov1812-1878 · 19th century · Russia · Writers100%
  42. 42Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev1856-1915 · 19th century · Russia · Musicians100%
  43. 43Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov1844-1908 · 19th century · Russia · Musicians100%
  44. 44Gerard Manley Hopkins1844-1889 · 19th century · United Kingdom · Writers100%
  45. 45Carlo Collodi1826-1890 · 19th century · Italy · Writers100%
  46. 46Bahá'u'lláh1817-1892 · 19th century · Writers100%
  47. 47Ayn Rand1905-1982 · 20th century · United States · Writers100%
  48. 48Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer1836-1870 · 19th century · Spain · Writers100%
  49. 49Eugène Atget1857-1927 · 19th century · France · Artists100%
  50. 50Henry David Thoreau1817-1862 · 19th century · United States · Writers100%
  51. 51Emily Dickinson1830-1886 · 19th century · United States · Writers100%
  52. 52Antoni Gaudí1852-1926 · 19th century · Spain · Architects100%
  53. 53Jenny von Westphalen1814-1881 · 19th century · Germany · Politicians100%
  54. 54Christian Daniel Rauch1777-1857 · 19th century · Artists100%
  55. 55Johnny Appleseed1774-1845 · 19th century · United States · Scientists100%
  56. 56Scott Joplin1868-1917 · 20th century · United States · Musicians100%
  57. 57Alan Turing1912-1954 · 20th century · United Kingdom · Academics100%
  58. 58Amedeo Modigliani1884-1920 · 20th century · Italy · Artists100%
  59. 59Stieg Larsson1954-2004 · 20th century · Sweden · Writers100%
  60. 60Tristan Corbière1845-1875 · 19th century · France · Writers100%
  61. 61Mikhail Bakhtin1895-1975 · 20th century · Russia · Academics100%
  62. 62Johann Jakob Bachofen1815-1887 · 19th century · Switzerland · Academics100%
  63. 63Nathan Bedford Forrest1821-1877 · 19th century · United States100%
  64. 64Wilhelm Canaris1887-1945 · 20th century · Germany · Historical Figures100%
  65. 65John Vianney1786-1859 · 19th century · France · Religious Figures100%
  66. 66Ramakrishna1836-1886 · 19th century · India · Academics100%
  67. 67George Armstrong Custer1839-1876 · 19th century · United States · Historical Figures100%
  68. 68Annette von Droste-Hülshoff1797-1848 · 19th century · Germany · Musicians100%
  69. 69Aloysius Bertrand1807-1841 · 19th century · France · Writers100%
  70. 70Claus von Stauffenberg1907-1944 · 20th century · Germany100%
  71. 71Khalil Gibran1883-1931 · 20th century · Turkey · Writers100%
  72. 72Juliette Récamier1777-1849 · 19th century · France · Writers100%
  73. 73Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa1896-1957 · 20th century · Italy · Writers99%
  74. 74Gottlieb Daimler1834-1900 · 19th century · Germany · Scientists99%
  75. 75Edgar Allan Poe1809-1849 · 19th century · United States · Writers99%
  76. 76F. W. Murnau1888-1931 · 20th century · Germany · Directors99%
  77. 77Maurice de Guérin1810-1839 · 19th century · France · Writers99%
  78. 78Mary Shelley1797-1851 · 19th century · United Kingdom · Writers99%
  79. 79Anita Garibaldi1821-1849 · 19th century · Brazil · Politicians99%
  80. 80Kang Youwei1858-1927 · 19th century · China · Politicians99%
  81. 81H. P. Lovecraft1890-1937 · 20th century · United States · Writers99%
  82. 82Charlotte Brontë1816-1855 · 19th century · United Kingdom · Writers99%
  83. 83Mary Todd Lincoln1818-1882 · 19th century · United States99%
  84. 84Wilfred Owen1893-1918 · 20th century · United Kingdom · Writers99%
  85. 85Carl Zeiss1816-1888 · 19th century · Germany · Scientists99%
  86. 86Sholem Aleichem1859-1916 · 19th century · United States · Writers99%
  87. 87Johns Hopkins1795-1873 · 19th century · United States · Founders99%
  88. 88Jaroslav Hašek1883-1923 · 20th century · Czechia · Writers99%
  89. 89Rudolf Höss1901-1947 · 20th century · Germany · Politicians99%
  90. 90Vincent van Gogh1853-1890 · 19th century · Netherlands · Artists99%
  91. 91Carl Spitzweg1808-1885 · 19th century · Germany · Artists99%
  92. 92Marie d'Agoult1805-1876 · 19th century · France · Writers99%
  93. 93Valentín Gómez Farías1781-1858 · 19th century · Spain · Politicians99%
  94. 94Antonio Gramsci1891-1937 · 20th century · Italy · Academics99%
  95. 95Moses Hess1812-1875 · 19th century · Germany · Academics99%
  96. 96Walter Benjamin1892-1940 · 20th century · Academics99%
  97. 97Konstantin Pobedonostsev1827-1907 · 19th century · Russia · Academics99%
  98. 98Eva Braun1912-1945 · 20th century · Germany · Artists99%
  99. 99Marceline Desbordes-Valmore1786-1859 · 19th century · France · Writers99%
  100. 100Fernando Pessoa1888-1935 · 20th century · Portugal · Writers99%

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.