Hello! I apologize in advance for how lengthy this is, but I’d love to hear some feedback!! I wanted to talk about the inconsistency of database entries when it comes to special characters (such as é or ï)
Basically, there are three categories of entries for names that traditionally include special characters:
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There are two entries, one with the traditional spelling, and one missing the special characters. You can see this with [name_m]Aurélien[/name_m] / [name_m]Aurelien[/name_m], [name_f]Ophélie[/name_f] / [name_f]Ophelie[/name_f], [name_m]Junípero[/name_m] / [name_m]Junipero[/name_m], [name_m]Sigurður[/name_m] / [name_m]Sigurdur[/name_m]. It should be noted that these entries don’t link to each other (as far as I can tell!)
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There is only one entry for the name, without the special characters traditionally used for the name. For example: the [name_u]French[/name_u] Léonide. It doesn’t exist on the database, but the spelling that’s missing the accent, [name_m]Leonide[/name_m], does. Other examples include [name_u]Zivka[/name_u] (in real life, spelt Živka), [name_m]Antonin[/name_m] (Antonín), [name_f]Marketa[/name_f] (Markéta), [name_u]Elisee[/name_u] (Élisée), and [name_m]Lucjan[/name_m] (Łucjan).
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There is only one entry for the name, with the special characters traditionally used for the name. One example is [name_f]Zsófia[/name_f], which does have an entry, while an entry for “Zsofia” doesn’t exist. Other entries like this include [name_m]Dražen[/name_m], [name_f]Aistė[/name_f], [name_f]Květa[/name_f], [name_m]Siôr[/name_m], [name_f]Austėja[/name_f] and [name_m]Thorbjörn[/name_m]. You can only find them if you directly type the special characters in the search bar, and there is no entry for, say, Thorbjorn without the ö. [name_m]Thorbjörn[/name_m] will not show up by typing Thorbjorn.
You can imagine why this would get a bit confusing and challenging! You don’t know how you should be typing a name to find it. It makes the database difficult to navigate and makes name pronunciations confusing or even inaccurate. For example: By looking at Łucjan, you can tell that the name is probably not pronounced with an [name_f]English[/name_f] L sound. But by looking at [name_m]Lucjan[/name_m], you’d be misled into thinking that it is, especially since a lot of these entries don’t have pronunciations listed. And if you want to look for the entry for Łucjan, it’s impossible to know if you should be typing Łucjan or [name_m]Lucjan[/name_m] in the search box, because there’s no consistency in regards to how entries are made.
[name_m]Marshall[/name_m] (@the_common_fool) and I enquired about the use of special characters in [name_u]August[/name_u], basically asking if it would be possible to make it so that by typing, for example, [name_f]Heloise[/name_f] into the search bar, it still makes [name_f]Héloïse[/name_f] show up! The admin at the time kindly mentioned that she would ask the technical team about it, but I’m not sure if she ever got the opportunity to do that. If it is possible, I think it’d be an incredible change and it would solve a lot of issues!
Personally, I strongly believe that special characters should be included in names’ entries, it’s just the way the database works now that makes it inconvenient. Most people won’t know that they have to use an ė if they want to find [name_f]Rusnė[/name_f] in the database, and that typing “Rusne” won’t yield any results. It sucks especially because most of these names (that only exist under entries with special characters) are very new additions to the database. Sadly, they end up getting buried because of how hard it is to search for them, instead of being showcased!
[name_f]My[/name_f] suggestion would be to make double entries for names with special characters, the way that there is both an [name_m]Aurélien[/name_m] and an [name_m]Aurelien[/name_m], but note the “real” spelling somewhere in the description or info box! And/or maybe have a direct link to the entry that uses the original spelling. Another option would be to only have entries with the traditional spelling, but for this to work you’d need to be able to find the names by typing them in the search bar without using special characters. To be clear, these are just some ideas, and I’m by no means trying to tell anyone what to do! Especially since I don’t have as much insight into how the database works as others! But I hope that by starting the conversation I’ve managed to be of help or inspire some ideas 
Thanks so much if you read all this!
Thank you to admins already looking into this! 
