What is "novak"

Novak (in Serbo-Croatian and Slovene), Novák (in Hungarian, Czech and Slovak), Nowak (in German and Polish) is a Slavic name, both used as a given name and surname, derived from the word for "new" (e.g. , , ) meaning something similar to "new man", "newcomer", or "stranger" in English. The name was often given to someone who came to a new city, or a convert to Christianity. It was also used for newcomers into an army and as an occupational surname for people who used the slash-and-burn method to create new arable land—novina. It is pronounced almost the same way: the main difference is that in Slovene, the stress is on the last syllable, while in all other cases it is on the first one.

Novák is the most common surname in the Czech Republic; Nowak is the most common surname in Poland; Novak is the most common surname in Slovenia, and the sixth most common in Croatia. It can also be found in Romania and Moldova in the Novac form. It is also found in Ashkenazi Jews.

Novak is a Serbian masculine given name, derived from the adjective novo ("new") and the Slavic suffix –ak, roughly meaning "newcomer", "the new one". It may refer to:

• Novak Djokovic (born 1987), Serbian tennis player
• Novak Kilibarda (born 1934), Montenegrin politician
• Novak Martinović (born 1985), Serbian footballer
• Novak Radonić (1826–1890), Serbian painter
• Novak Roganović (1932–2008), Serbian footballer
• Novak Tomić (1936–2003), Serbian footballer
• Novak Novak (1928–1995), Serbian writer and journalist
• Starina Novak (1530–1601), Serbian commander
• Novak Karaljuk (fl. 1404), Serbian commander
• Novak Grebostrek (fl. 1312), Serbian commander