MATHEMATICIAN

John Napier

1550 - 1617

Photo of John Napier

Icon of person John Napier

John Napier of Merchiston ( NAY-pee-ər; Latinized as Ioannes Neper; 1 February 1550 – 4 April 1617), nicknamed Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish landowner known as a mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. He was the 8th Laird of Merchiston. John Napier is best known as the discoverer of logarithms. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of John Napier has received more than 1,468,757 page views. His biography is available in 81 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 74 in 2019). John Napier is the 29th most popular mathematician (up from 30th in 2019), the 90th most popular biography from United Kingdom (up from 116th in 2019) and the 2nd most popular British Mathematician.

John Napier is most famous for inventing logarithms. He was a Scottish mathematician who was born in 1550 and died in 1617.

Memorability Metrics

  • 1.5M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 78.65

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 81

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 11.45

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.63

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among MATHEMATICIANS

Among mathematicians, John Napier ranks 29 out of 1,004. Before him are Luca Pacioli, John von Neumann, Joseph-Louis Lagrange, John Forbes Nash Jr., Évariste Galois, and Apollonius of Perga. After him are François Viète, Diophantus, Gerolamo Cardano, Georg Cantor, Ada Lovelace, and Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet.

Most Popular Mathematicians in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Contemporaries

Among people born in 1550, John Napier ranks 3. Before him are Safiye Sultan, and Charles IX of France. After him are Willem Barentsz, Charles IX of Sweden, Henry I, Duke of Guise, Camillus de Lellis, Jang-geum, John Davis, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Stanislaus Kostka, and Karin Månsdotter. Among people deceased in 1617, John Napier ranks 3. Before him are Ahmed I, and Pocahontas. After him are Rose of Lima, Francisco Suárez, Emperor Go-Yōzei, Concino Concini, David Fabricius, Hendrik Goltzius, 4th Dalai Lama, Fausto Veranzio, and Dorothea of Denmark, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

Others Born in 1550

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Others Deceased in 1617

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, John Napier ranks 90 out of 8,785. Before him are Edward I of England (1239), Alan Rickman (1946), Mary Shelley (1797), George Harrison (1943), Henry VII of England (1457), and Robert Louis Stevenson (1850). After him are Nicholas Winton (1909), Edward III of England (1312), Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson (1758), Jeff Beck (1944), Walter Scott (1771), and Elizabeth Taylor (1932).

Others born in United Kingdom

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Among MATHEMATICIANS In United Kingdom

Among mathematicians born in United Kingdom, John Napier ranks 2. Before him are Bertrand Russell (1872). After him are Ada Lovelace (1815), George Boole (1815), Alfred North Whitehead (1861), G. H. Hardy (1877), Isaac Barrow (1631), Joan Clarke (1917), Thomas Harriot (1560), John Wallis (1616), Brook Taylor (1685), and John Couch Adams (1819).

British born Mathematicians

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous