Zaks is a surname. Among Jews, it can be a variant of the German surname,

Sachs Sachs is a German surname, meaning "man from Saxony". Sachs is a common surname among Ashkenazi Jews from Saxony, in the United States sometimes adopted in the variant Zaks, supposedly in reference to the Hebrew phrase ''Zera Kodesh Shemo'' (ZaKS), ...

, the patronymic variant of the Hebrew biblical male personal name Yitzchak/Isaac or it can originate in the

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

surname Za'Ks, which stands for the Hebrew words, ''Zera Kodesh Shemo,'' literally meaning "his name is Holy Seed," a quotation from

Isaiah Isaiah ( or ; he, , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "God is Salvation"), also known as Isaias, was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "the ...

6:13 and implying "his name descends from martyrs." This acronym can also refer to the town of martyrdom, such as

Speyer Speyer (, older spelling ''Speier'', French: ''Spire,'' historical English: ''Spires''; pfl, Schbaija) is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the river Rhine, Speyer li ...

Stendal The Hanseatic City of Stendal () is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is the capital of the Stendal District and the unofficial capital of the Altmark region. Geography Situated west of the Elbe valley, the Stendal town centre is located s ...

, indicating a holy martyr from such a town. Notable people with the surname include: *

Amram Zaks Rabbi Amram Yitzchak''Hamodia''. Dec 5, 2012. p. 1; Zaks (1926—2012) served as the ''rosh yeshiva'' of the Slabodka yeshiva of Bnei Brak, Israel alongside Rabbis Dov Landau and Moshe Hillel Hirsch.''Hamodia''. Dec 5, 2012. p. D40. Biography ...

(1926–2012), Israeli Rosh yeshiva *

Hillel Zaks Hillel Zaks ( he, הלל זקס; February 2, 1931 – January 13, 2015) was the founder and ''rosh yeshiva'' of Yeshivas Knesses Hagedolah in Kiryat Sefer. He was the son of Mendel Zaks, Mendel and Faiga Chaya Zaks, the youngest daughter of Israel ...

(-2015), Israeli Rosh yeshiva *

Jerry Zaks Jerry Zaks (born September 7, 1946) is an American stage and television director, and actor. He won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play and Drama Desk Award for directing ''The House of Blue Leaves'', ''Lend Me a Tenor'', and ''Six Degree ...

(born 1946), German actor *

Mendel Zaks Menachem Mendel Yosef Zaks ( he, מענדיל זאקס; 1898–1974) (commonly known as Rabbi Mendel Zaks) was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi in Belarus and the United States, best known for being the ''Rosh Yeshiva'' of the Raduń Yeshiva and being the ...

(1898–1974), American rabbi *

Rodnay Zaks Rodnay Zaks (born 10 February 1946, Paris) is a French-born American author of many books on computer programming, including the seminal '' Programming the Z80'' and ''Programming the 6502''. He is the founder of independent computer book publish ...

(born 1946), American author *

Shmuel Zaks Schmuel Zaks (born 1949) is a computer scientist and mathematician who works in the fields of distributed computing and computer networks. He is a professor at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, where he holds the Joan Callner-Miller Cha ...

(born 1949), Israeli scientist

References

{{Reflist Jewish surnames

See also

References