Pollack
A surname with several possible roots, including a place-name, a nickname, or a form related to Pollock/Polak.
The #3,959 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 34,393 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Pollack has more than one possible origin. In English and Scottish records it may be a variant of Pollock or Polak, and one old explanation connects it with a place-name element meaning “pool” or “hole,” though that derivation is uncertain. Some continental sources also treat Pollack as a form meaning “Pole,” i.e. someone from Poland, which would make it an ethnic surname rather than a native English one.
History
Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century surname dictionaries do not agree on a single explanation, which suggests that the name may have arisen independently in different places. In Britain it was often grouped with Pollock and related forms, while German-language sources also gloss it as “Pole.” Because of that mixed record, modern bearers may descend from different lineages even when the spelling is the same.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
German onomastic works explicitly gloss Pollack as “a Pole,” showing how surnames can cross languages and shift meaning as they spread.
From the historical record
“element is app. a pers. name] POLLACK 1 I Bel. to Pollack (Hants) [doubt* POLLAK J ful : perh. O.E. ^rf/, pool + dc, oak (tree : ' cp. the Kentish place - name 'Poleash'] 2 for Pollock, q.v. 3 for Pol a (c)k, q.v.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)