34. A system for facilitating searching and matching of data, comprising: a non-transitory memory device for storing computer readable program code; and a processor in communication with the memory device, the processor being operative with the computer readable program code to: receive an input data string including one or more ideographic elements; convert the input data string to a Latin-based input data string; generate one or more input keys based on the Latin-based input data string, including remove any non-space silent element from the input data string to generate a phonetic key; search, using the one or more input keys, a reference database for one or more candidate records, wherein similar records in the database are indexed by a common lookup key; and if the one or more candidate records are found, determining a match score of the one or more candidate records.
34. A system for facilitating searching and matching of data, comprising: a non-transitory memory device for storing computer readable program code; and a processor in communication with the memory device, the processor being operative with the computer readable program code to: receive an input data string including one or more ideographic elements; convert the input data string to a Latin-based input data string; generate one or more input keys based on the Latin-based input data string, including remove any non-space silent element from the input data string to generate a phonetic key; search, using the one or more input keys, a reference database for one or more candidate records, wherein similar records in the database are indexed by a common lookup key; and if the one or more candidate records are found, determining a match score of the one or more candidate records. 35. The system of claim 34 wherein the silent element comprises a letter “H,” “G,” “I,” or “U.”