Who is the first person in recorded history that practicaly everyone has heard of?

[bibliophage]

My first thought was Hammurabi. First, I think we can disqualify the characters from Genesis and Exodus as not proven to be historical personages. To judge from recent Google ngram results from English-language books (a biased sample, I know), Hammurabi is slightly more written about than Khufu / Cheops combined or Sargon, significantly more than Tutankhamen / King Tut combined, and much more than Scorpion King / King Scorpion combined.

Chronological list of people mentioned above, excluding those of questionable historicity:

King Scorpion (Egypt), ca. 3150 BC (?)
Sargon of Akkad b. ca. 2360 BC (?)
Khufu / Cheops b. ca. 2598 BC
Hammurabi b. ca. 1810 BC (?)
Tutankhamen b. 1321 BC
Gautama Buddha b. 563 BC (?)
Confucius / Kǒngzǐ b. 551 BC
Socrates b. ca. 470 BC
Alexander the Great b. 356 BC
Julius Caesar b. 100 BC
Jesus b. ca. 4 BC
Muhammad b. ca. AD 570

[A_Dodgy_Dude]

Yes, OP will need to define what “practically everyone” means. If it means “at least half the people on the planet” I’d guess … Donald Trump!

I spelled practically wrong, didn’t I? Sorry.
By “practically everyone” I didn’t mean it literally. I meant anyone who is reasonably educated, not a troglodyte, anyone who has a fairly consistent grip on reality.

[FlikTheBlue]

@lingyi

Agreed that this is a loaded question with no possible definitive answer.

My votes would be for:

If the criteria is historically established to have existed, then Confucius (551 B.C.) with ~1.4 billion Chinese + an additional 2-3 billion who have heard of him

If the criteria is generally accepted to have existed, then Muhammad (570 C.E) with ~1.3 billion Muslims + an additional 2-3 billion who have heard of him.

If the criteria allows for generally believed to have existed, then Jesus (~33 B.C.) with ~2.1 billion Christians + 2-3 billion

This sounds about right to me. I doubt any other westerners would be that well known in Asia, probably not even Julius Caeser, who I guess is probably the most well known historical westerner.

[FlikTheBlue]

@TokyoBayer

My wife was a history major in college, so she knows all of these, but thinks that most Taiwanese may have heard of many in world history but certainly can’t really say anything about them.

I would be extremely surprised if a significant percent of Westerners could recognize anyone from Asian history
outside of Buddha or Confucius.

This was likely true 30 years ago. I think a few others might hit at least the double digits these days, mainly Oda Nobunaga, Cao Cao, and Liu Bei.

[Darren_Garrison]

@FlikTheBlue

This was likely true 30 years ago. I think a few others might hit at least the double digits these days, mainly Oda Nobunaga, Cao Cao, and Liu Bei.

For a data point of one, I’ve never heard of any of these.

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

Not sure whether Gilgamesh should be in the mix.

[Darren_Garrison]

@The_Other_Waldo_Pepper

Not sure whether Gilgamesh should be in the mix.

I would say not. One, we don’t know for sure if there was a historical Gilgamesh at all (place him in the “King Arthur” category) and two, I doubt 1 in 100 people have heard of him, even in Western countries.

[ZurBob]

Who is the first person in recorded history that practicaly everyone has heard of?

I will nominate Genghis Khan circa 1220 AD, for (nearest to) worldwide recognition by the most people at the earliest date. His actions touched the lives of everyone from eastern Europe to western Asia. Christians, Jews, Muslims, et al. were affected, and every political “entity” in the so-called civilized world was aware of his actions.

[AK84]

Confucius seems a good nominee. Bedrock of oriental culture and is known both in the West and in the MENA and S Asia.

[ZurBob]

Perhaps I misunderstood The OP. I took it to mean the earliest persons who had notoriety among the greatest populace, during their time.

[Fiendish_Astronaut]

@ZurBob

Perhaps I misunderstood The OP. I took it to mean the earliest persons who had notoriety among the greatest populace, during their time.

That’s what I read it as. And the answer would probably be someone in modern times like a monarch or head of state.

[lingyi]

Qin Shi Huang Di (The Yellow Emperor) - 2700 B.C. Known by the largest populous both historical and modern, and by historical significance if not by name. Never heard of him? How did China become unified? Oh, that guy who ruled over all of China of course!

The OP’s question as stated is too broad to make any question to make give any type of definitive answer and in reality is a nonsense question.

Recorded history? - At what point in time? Prior to 1922, no one knew King Tut even existed.

Practically everyone? - Define everyone. The largest population at a given historical point? The known world at a given point? The world population right now?

Has heard of? - By name, by reputation, by historical significance, by importance? In the case of Qin Shi Huang Di and his successors, since it could take months for news to travel to the outer borders of China, those people probably knew them simply as “The Emperor”, who they paid homage and taxes to.

[lingyi]

@ZurBob

Perhaps I misunderstood The OP. I took it to mean the earliest persons who had notoriety among the greatest populace, during their time.

As I think about it, i believe the question as posed is present tense. If the question referred to the person’s contemporaries it would be “…had heard of?” (i.e. during their lifetime).

[The_Stainless_Steel_Rat]

@ZurBob

I will nominate Genghis Khan circa 1220 AD, for (nearest to) worldwide recognition by the most people at the earliest date. His actions touched the lives of everyone from eastern Europe to western Asia. Christians, Jews, Muslims, et al. were affected, and every political “entity” in the so-called civilized world was aware of his actions.

I came to post this. The problems with the others were communication in the BC era was not fast and getting the ‘word’ out on Chinese and Indian leaders/heroes/religious people wasn’t that easy. G. Khan did it by conquering a fair portion of the world while killing off a substantial percentage of those living there, which made sure people (those that kept their heads) spread his fame…

In the modern era, I would mention Pele, the Brazialian soccer star of the 1950’s-70’s, as one of the first with a real global reach, with large majorities of the population in the Southern Hemisphere (which is rather neglected by most of the above) along with Europe and Asia (even a fair number of Americans had heard of him at the time).

IMHO as always. YMMV.

[RTFirefly]

With respect to the present day: I don’t know to what extent Christian evangelism is allowed or can at least be gotten away with in the People’s Republic of China. But with that (admittedly large) possible exception, I’d assume that upwards of 95% of the adult population of the world has at least heard of Jesus, due to the persistence of Christian evangelists.

[lingyi]

@RTFirefly

With respect to the present day: I don’t know to what extent Christian evangelism is allowed or can at least be gotten away with in the People’s Republic of China. But with that (admittedly large) possible exception, I’d assume that upwards of 95% of the adult population of the world has at least heard of Jesus, due to the persistence of Christian evangelists.

Minus out the a large number of Hindus and Muslims in rural India.

[lingyi]

@The_Stainless_Steel_Rat

I came to post this. The problems with the others were communication in the BC era was not fast and getting the ‘word’ out on Chinese and Indian leaders/heroes/religious people wasn’t that easy. G. Khan did it by conquering a fair portion of the world while killing off a substantial percentage of those living there, which made sure people (those that kept their heads) spread his fame…

In the modern era, I would mention Pele, the Brazialian soccer star of the 1950’s-70’s, as one of the first with a real global reach, with large majorities of the population in the Southern Hemisphere (which is rather neglected by most of the above) along with Europe and Asia (even a fair number of Americans had heard of him at the time).

IMHO as always. YMMV.

Interesting point about Pele. Given the popularity of soccer around the world (excluding the US of course), I’d venture to say a world class soccer star is more likely known than any political or historical figure today.

[Siam_Sam]

@lingyi

Adam and Eve. Done!

Edit: If you count divine beings. God!

@Beckdawrek

The Father the Son and the Holy Ghost.

I don’t think fictional characters should count.

[Beckdawrek]

Ok, then, Santa Claus. Don’t tell me it’s a myth. I’ll tell Cecil on you.

[K2500]

@TokyoBayer

My wife was a history major in college, so she knows all of these, but thinks that most Taiwanese may have heard of many in world history but certainly can’t really say anything about them.

I would be extremely surprised if a significant percent of Westerners could recognize anyone from Asian history
outside of Buddha or Confucius.

Most people that I know would confuse Budai for Buddha, at least by appearance.