André Merlin
born 1942French engineer
Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Articles in 2 languages make the French engineer André Merlin the best known. Second and third on the list are François Laporte and Jean-Pierre Pagis. 2 of them are leaders, more than in any other field. André Merlin, the best known, was born in 1942.
André Merlin has articles in 2 languages, François Laporte in 2 and Jean-Pierre Pagis in 2.
French engineer
French politician (1736-1822)
Bishop of Verdun (1835-1908)
The 1940s saw the most births of any decade: 1.
Each dot is a person, stacked by the decade they were born.
Politics & Law leads the fields, with 2 people.
The usual town: the share across everyone listed in French towns. Tap a field to see its people.
1 more, best known first.
French politician (1755-1840)
No one matches both filters.
The neighbour with the most names is Mauriac, at 9.
André Merlin (French engineer) is the best known by our measure: 2 Wikipedia and sister-site articles in different languages. Next come François Laporte and Jean-Pierre Pagis.
4 people born in Pleaux have a French Wikipedia article that confirms the town as their birthplace (and an English one that agrees, when there is one). Wikidata places 5 people here; the rest aren’t listed because an article names somewhere else or no town, or a check couldn’t be completed.
Among its famous people, leaders: 2 of the 4. That is 50% of the town’s list, against 24% across French towns.
François Laporte, born in 1736. The youngest on the list was born in 1942.
People whose Wikidata birthplace is Pleaux itself, matched by its INSEE code (a commune merged into it counts when the dates allow), whose French Wikipedia article agrees, and their English article too when they have one. A hospital or neighbourhood recorded without its commune isn’t matched. People who only lived here, adult performers and people known mainly for crimes aren’t listed.
Their Wikidata birthplace may be a hospital, a neighbourhood or a wider area, another commune, or missing, or their articles may not name a birthplace. We only list people the sources agree on; editing Wikidata or Wikipedia changes this page at the next refresh.
From Wikidata (CC0: birthplaces, descriptions, years, occupations, how many Wikipedia and sister-site articles cover each person) and French and English Wikipedia (each person’s articles confirm the birthplace; linked, not quoted). Birthplaces are matched to the commune by INSEE code and its history of mergers (INSEE COG 2026). Ranked by the number of articles. Fields are read from Wikidata’s description and occupations. “The usual town”: everyone listed across French towns. Portraits: each person’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the license below (our copy, resized).
Contains public sector information under the Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab): INSEE, DGFiP, the Interior Ministry’s statistics service (SSMSI), the Ministry of Education (DEPP), the Health Ministry’s statistics service (DREES) and the Housing Ministry (Carte des loyers). Commune boundaries: IGN Admin Express.