Novak (in Serbo-Croatian and Slovene; Cyrillic: Новак), Novák (in Hungarian, Czech and Slovak), or Nowak (in Polish), is a surname and masculine given name, derived from the Slavic word for "new" (e.g. Polish: nowy, Czech: nový, Serbo-Croatian: nov / нов), which depending on the exact language and usage, translates as "novice", "new man", "newcomer", or "stranger".
[5] The surname is usually spelled Novak (Cyrillic: Новак) in Serbo-Croatian, Slovene, Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian, Novák in Czech, Slovak, and Hungarian and Nowak in Polish and German.
As of 2009, Nowak (Polish pronunciation: [ˈnɔvak]) is the most common surname in Poland, having surpassed Kowalski.
There are two noble families of Polish origin with the surname Nowak: Novák is widespread in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
It is much less common in northern and western Slovenia; in the Goriška region on the border with Italy, it is quite rare.