Kozak Family History

Ukrainian Rusyn and Polish; Czech Slovak and Hungarian (Kozák): ethnic name for a Cossack, a member of a Slavic people descended from a group of runaway serfs who set up a semi-independent military republic in Ukraine in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Cossacks became noted for their military prowess. The name Cossack is of Turkic origin (from quzzaq ‘adventurer guerilla’; compare Turkish Kazak) but most European languages borrowed it from East Slavic. Compare Kosack, Kosak, and Kozack.

Polish; Czech (Kozák): occupational name for a goatherd from a derivative of Koza ‘nanny goat’. The homonymous Sorbian cognates Kózak and Kozak (from Lower Sorbian kóza, Upper Sorbian koza) are apparently found in Germanized and Americanized forms only (see Kosack and Kosak).

Slovak and Czech (Kozák): possibly also from kozák, a kind of mushroom from the genus Leccinum. Slovenian, Croatian, and Serbian: nickname or occupational name from a derivative of koza ‘nanny goat’ or perhaps, in some cases, a nickname from kozak ‘light horseman of the Cossack military unit’ (compare 1 above and 5 below).

Turkish: ornamental name from kozak ‘cone’ or from a homonymous word meaning ‘shady place’. Jewish (Ashkenazic): nickname from Yiddish kozak ‘warrior, Cossack’ (a loanword from Ukrainian or a cognate in some other Slavic language; see 1 above).

Compare Kazak, Kosak, and Kozack.