As I conduct my genealogical research back through medieval Europe through one of my "gateway ancestors," I run into confusion over names varying quite a bit in even contemporary records. It's not just that standardized spelling is a modern invention, it's that names were completely transformed between languages.
My current example:
William of Faucigny is the anglicized version of this 11th-12th century man. He is referred to as Guillaume de Faucigny in French, but Latin documents from the time refer to him as...Guillelmi(?) And I can't even tell which member of his family would have been referred to as Gebennensis. (His father Louis? His brother Guy?)
And I remember being really surprised to learn that "Christopher Columbus" was not what the explorer's friends called him.
Greetings Cuz ;) I've been asking myself the same thing with regards to the same grandfather. I've decided to leave the name as Guillaume, his French name, he being French and all! As for whether Gebennensis is his father Louis or his brother Guy ... the mind boggles! I've found it really hard researching this family as I only speak English - Google Translate has been my best friend of late :) FTR, I am not an academic, so I apologize up front if this post is not up to scratch. Your question came up in a web search and so I thought I'd answer given I've been pondering the same issue,and noone else has answered you. I think if anyone is remembering me in 1000 years time (lol) I personally would like my name recorded as it is now, in my time, in my language, so I go with that. Good luck with your tree building - its a fascinating journey for sure.