Zak (surname)

In general Zak is a Russian surname, when it is related to both Żak, a Polish surname, and Žák, a Czech surname. However in the case of Jews, it can be a variant of the German surname, Sachs, the patronymic variant of the Hebrew biblical male personal name Yitzchak/Isaac or it can originate in the acronym surname Za'K, which stands for the Hebrew words, Zera Kodesh, literally meaning Holy Seed, a quotation from Isaiah 6:13 implying descent from martyrs. This name originated with a rabbinic family in 1659 in Ruzhany, now Belarus. In the variant Zaks, the final letter of the acronym can make the phrase Zera Kodesh Shemo ("his name descends from martyrs") or it may refer to the town of martyrdom, such as Speyer or Stendal. Notable people with the surname include: