where does the last name novak come from
Novak (in Serbo-Croatian and Slovene; Cyrillic: Новак), Novák (in Hungarian, Czech and Slovak), Nowak (in German and Polish) is a Slavic surname and masculine given name, derived from the word for "new" (e.g. Polish: nowy, Czech: nový, Serbo-Croatian: novo / ново), which depending on the exact language and usage, translates as "novice", "new man", "newcomer", or "stranger". The name was often given to a new arrival in a city or a convert to Christianity. It was also used for newcomers to 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 in most languages, with the stress on the first syllable. The main exception is Slovene, which places the stress on the last syllable.