Family name origins & meanings
- Polish (Półtorak), Jewish (from Poland and Ukraine), and Ukrainian : nickname from Polish półtorak ‘one and a half’, denoting a coin of the value of one and half grosz. Alternatively, perhaps, a nickname for an exceptionally large person, from Polish półtora, Russian poltora, ‘one and a half’ + the Slavic noun suffix -ak, or from the same word in an expression meaning, roughly, ‘he looks the very picture’.