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. 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, Zera Kodesh Speyer, or Stendal.

Zak is also a variant Romanization of the Chinese surname 石 (shí), based on its pronunciation in the Shanghai dialect, meaning the dry measure for grain equal to ten dou 斗, one hundred liters, rock, stone, stone inscription, or one of the eight categories of ancient musical instruments 八音 (bā yīn).

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