I was looking for a way to have a person's name written in both original and official/international language, but could not find how to do it. There can be many instances when a person has one name but is known under his or her psydoname or a name adapted to a different language, written in a different alphabet or missing original characters. I believe this would be a very useful feature for many users born or living in a multilingual environment...
The standard for family tree files is to save all first names (including middle names) in the same field. This is why there are no separate fields for alternate names online.
In our genealogy program, Family Tree Builder, you have the option to add to the information in a person's card several name fields and also to add names in two languages. However, they will not all display online, for the research purposes that you refer to.
Please note that our Smart Matches feature is able to translate and find results for names in other languages.
I have done this as follows: my husband's grandfather's name is recorded as Max Gorczalczany\ Garry; my father used several versions during his lifetime--Johan\ John Louis Muench\ Munch\ de Monch. Do NOT use the forward slash, for that will repeat the name endlessly for some reason. In FTB you can record when and where the name changes occurred.
You're right, there's Name Change in Facts, but it's not only the change of name I am talking about. Some people have different and interchangeable names their whole lives or the names that vary in spelling (for example, Aleksander/Alexander/Sasha or Robert/Bob). The practice is common on other social network websites, like Facebook. There you have "Alternate name" field where I could write my name in Cyrillics for whoever might look for me under my Russian name.
I have always used FTB and uploaded, because I don't want other people messing with the family tree, so I don't know what is possible with the on-line version.
That's the opposite for me, I want as many relatives as possible to be able to add and edit information in the tree, and that's why it's of great importance that the relatives who don't understand Russian can still read the names. Writing all names in Latin alphabet does not solve the problem, because there are so many different ways of transliteration and "westernization" of slavic names...
