In some cases, people deliberately use several names, especially criminals, or security, or spies. That's another kind of problem. The first one you mentioned was really whether to decide which transliteration you use in English, where several might be in use. China now, by the way, has a fairly standard and widely used transcription in English called Pinyin, which simplifies things there. The Chinese names used to be a major problem because they could be written in English in all manner of ways.
On February 28th, 2012. See this statement in context.