“Having really nice, relevant, interesting, fun stamps might make a difference in people’s decisions to mail a letter,” said Stephen Kearney, the Postal Service’s manager of stamp services. “This is such a sea change.”

When the news broke Monday on the Web sites of various news organizations, including The New York Times, readers began promoting their favorite candidates. Popular nominees included Lady Gaga, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Bob Dylan. CBS News gave readers a choice, listing options like Neil Armstrong (very popular) and Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook (not so much).

Mr. Kearney said that while the Postal Service is enjoying perusing the responses, its choice would not depend on such polls to pick the first living honorees. Its Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee will sift through the suggestions and make a recommendation to the postmaster general, who will make the final decision.

The Postal Service usually receives about 40,000 suggestions a year, but this move is likely to increase that number.

In one famous instance, the postmaster himself — not the committee — came up with a person to put on a stamp, and it turned out to be the most popular stamp ever: Elvis Presley, who died in 1977. The Postal Service did survey citizens on whether to use an image of the heavier older Elvis or the slender young Elvis. In what was then an unprecedented move, preaddressed ballots were distributed in post offices throughout the country. More than one million ballots were received — the young Elvis was the overwhelming choice, and the stamp was issued in 1993. The Elvis stamp is considered the most popular ever because people saved 124 million of the stamps.