lead character vs protagonist

lead character

noun
  • The main protagonist in a work. 

protagonist

noun
  • The main character, or one of the main characters, in any story, such as a literary work or drama. 

  • An advocate or champion of a cause or course of action. 

  • A leading person in a contest; a principal performer. 

How often have the words lead character and protagonist occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )