There are variant spellings of the name Belak.

Until today I have heard of Bellak, Belack and Bellack and Beljak. But I am sure there are a lot more. Specially in the Eastern Europe countries, like Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slowakia, Croatia and maybe in the Russian area.

I got a lot of mails, sent by Belaks from Australia, Sweden, Czech, Germany, Poland and other countries.

To start the discussion of the origin of our name, I publish an e-mail I got:

My father comes from a small village (Belak) in middle Dalmatia (Croatia) and I always had this idea of all of this being tied up with the King Bela IV escape before Atila the Hun. They escaped in 13 century to Trogir on Adriatic coast and the village Belak is only - some 20km - far from Trogir.

One would think how all the court people who escaped with their King could have inhabbited that area and simply take over the surname (BELA IV - BELAK).

Maybe we can get some more information about the area, he is talking about (Trogir). Whoever knows more about it, should send me an e-mail. Thank you!

And here is the answer e-mail to it:

The MYTH OF THE BELAK NAME:

Please be careful, because the explanation on  the web-site is not correct and it is very confusing!

Attila was the leader of the Huns, between 433 and 453 AD. Thus, Attila ruled in the 5th  century AD!
Se details: http://art1.candor.com/barbarian/attila.htm

Bela IV , 1206-70, with God´s Grace the King of Hungaria, Dalmatia, Croatia, Rama, Serbia, Galicia, Lodomeria  and Kumania (1235-70), son and successor of Andrew II. He tried to curtail the power of the magnates and set out to recover the crownlands his father had given to supporters. Confronted by the menace of the Mongol invasion, he sent unheeded  appeals to Pope Gregory IX and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, but he was crushingly defeated at Mohi on the Sajo River in 1241. Returning after the withdrawal of the invaders, he repopulated the country by inviting foreign colonization. In a battle (1246) with the last Babenberg duke of Austria, the  duke was killed but the Austrians were victorious. Bela's long struggle with Ottocar II, king of Bohemia, for Austria and Styria ended (1260) in defeat. His last years were disturbed by the rebellion of his son, later King Stephen V.

More details:  http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0806818.html

Thus, Bela IV was not  fighting with the Huns of Attila, but with the Mongols.
The leader of the  Mongols (Tatars) was Batu Khan.
And it happened 800 years after  Attila!

THE ORIGIN OF THE BELAK NAME:

Since Bela IV was the  king of a huge region, including Dalmatia, Kroatia, probably some families took up the name of the King who rebuilt the destroyed land after the Mongol invasion.

But since there are Belaks also in Slovakia, Poland, Czech Republic, I have a feeling that the name comes from the Slavonic WHITE word (belyj, belaya, beloye).

Being Hungarian, I would be more proud to see  our great Hungarian king Bela IV as the origin of the name, but I am afraid that the linguistic explanation is more probable....