Such changes, chiefly based upon transliterations, are met with in all countries. The name of /Taaffe/, familiar in Austrian history, had an Irish prototype, probably /Taft/. General /Demikof/, one of the Russian commanders at the battle of Zorndorf, in 1758, was a Swede born /Themicoud/. Franz Maria von /Thugut/, the Austrian diplomatist, was a member of an Italian Tyrolese family named /Tunicotto/. This became /Thunichgut/ (=/do no good/) in Austria, and was changed to /Thugut/ (=/do good/) to bring it into greater accord with its possessor's deserts.[8] In [Pg273] /Bonaparte/ the Italian /buon(o)/ became the French /bon/. Many English surnames are decayed forms of Norman-French names, for example, /Sidney/ from /St. Denis/, /Divver/ from /De Vere/, /Bridgewater/ from /Burgh de Walter/, /Montgomery/ from /de Mungumeri/, /Garnett/ from /Guarinot/, and /Seymour/ from /Saint-Maure/. A large number of so-called Irish names are the products of rough-and-ready transliterations of Gaelic patronymics, for example, /Findlay/ from /Fionnlagh/, /Dermott/ from /Diarmuid/, and /McLane/ from /Mac Illeathiain/. In the same way the name of /Phoenix/ Park, in Dublin, came from /Fion Uisg/ (=/fine water/). Of late some of the more ardent Irish authors and politicians have sought to return to the originals. Thus, /O'Sullivan/ has become /O Suilleabháin/, /Pearse/ has become /Piarais/, /Mac Sweeney/ has become /Mac Suibhne/, and /Patrick/ has suffered a widespread transformation to /Padraic/. But in America, with a language of peculiar vowel-sounds and even consonant-sounds struggling against a foreign invasion unmatched for strength and variety, such changes have been far more numerous than across the ocean, and the legal rule of /idem sonans/ is of much wider utility than anywhere else in the world. If it were not for that rule there would be endless difficulties for the /Wises/ whose grandfathers were /Weisses/, and the /Leonards/ born /Leonhards/, /Leonhardts/ or /Lehnerts/, and the /Manneys/ who descend and inherit from /Le Maines/.