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Surname: Backrack
Over the centuries the name Backrack had some changes and the present form, appears to be different from the original.
When traditional Jews were forced to take family names by the local bureaucracy, it was an obligation imposed from outside traditional Jewish society, and people frequently took the names from the village or town that they were born in or lived in, or they let their imaginations run wild by choosing names which corresponded to nothing real in their world.
No one alive today can remember the times when Jews took or were given family names (for most Ashkenazim this was the end of the 18th century or the beginning of the 19th) although many remember names being modified after emigration to other countries, such as the United States, England and Israel in recent years.
Therefore, it is believed that the surname Backrack came originally from BACHRACH.
BACHRACH was a habitation name from a town on the Rhine near Koblenz, recorded in the earliest Latin documents as BACARACA today known as BACHARACH. The place name seems to be the same as that of Baccarat in the Vosges and is of Celtic origin, but is of unknown meaning.
The surname BACHARACH (including spelling variations Bacherach; Bachrach & Backrack) was originally adopted in the cities of Worms (1449), Mainz (1455) and Frankfurt am Main (1516). Then, carried by a rabbinical dynasty, it spread to numerous locations in central and eastern Europe. Later, in the early 17th century, it appeared in and around Göttingen (then a southern part of the Duchy of Braunschweig). In the middle of the 17th century, this surname could be found in and around Kassel in the county of Hesse-Kassel (today in Northern Hesse).
Because the Bacharach name was in use as early as the 1400s and widely dispersed by the 1600s, there may be reason to believe there are connections among the different families who carry the name. It was exceedingly unusual at that time for Jews to pass a surname down from generation to generation, unless it showed a connection to a famous rabbi or a distinguished lineage of some other sort. There were a few semi-famous rabbis who had the Bacharach surname and possibly originated in the Rhine area around the town of Bacharach. One was Rabbi Abraham Samuel Bacharach (ca 1575-1615) who married the granddaughter of the famous chief rabbi of Prague, Judah Loew ben Bezalel and was the rabbi of Worms. His grandson, Rabbi Yair Chayim Bacharach (1639-1702) was also well-known. It’s possible that the various branches of their families carried on the surname because of the connection to this illustrious family.