Zak (surname)
Zak is a surname. It can be 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.[1] 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.[2] Notable people with the surname include:
- Anna Zak (born 2001), Israeli social media star
- Eugeniusz Zak (1884–1926), Belarusian artist also known as Eugène Zak and Eugene Zak
- Frankie Zak (1922-1972), American Major League Baseball player
- Fyodor Zak (born 1949), Russian mathematician
- Gershon Zak (1913-1989), Commander of the Israeli Navy
- John C. Zak (born 1954), American director, producer and filmmaker
- Leocadia I. Zak, Director of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency beginning 2009
- Paul J. Zak (born 1962), American neuroeconomist
- Peter Zak (born 1965), American jazz pianist and composer
Fictional characters
- Piotr Zak, a fictional 'Polish composer' who featured in a famous BBC broadcasting hoax in 1961
- Rowena "Randy" Zak, a pre-teenage girl from the Girl Talk (books) series