Family name origins & meanings
- North German and Dutch : reduced form of the medieval personal name Godschack (see Gottschalk).
- North German and Dutch : from schaak ‘checkerboard’; either a nickname for a good chess player, or (in the form Van Schaack) a habitational name for someone living at a house distinguished by the sign of a checkerboard.
- North German and Dutch : A Dutch American family called Van Schaack are descended from Elias van Schaack, a fur trader in New Netherland in the 17th century.