Pasternak or Pasternack (Cyrillic: Пастернак, Russian pronunciation: [pəstʲɪrˈnak], Hungarian: paszternák), means parsnip, Pastinaca sativa, in Polish, Romanian, Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Hungarian, and Yiddish. Notable people with the last name "Pasternak" include:

• Anne Pasternak (born 1964), American art critic
• Ben Pasternak (born 1999), Australian co-founder and CEO of Monkey Inc.
• Boris Pasternak (1890–1960), Russian/Soviet poet and novelist
• Bruce Pasternack (1947–2021), American corporate executive
• Carol Braun Pasternack, American scholar of English medieval literature and language
• David Pastrňák (born 1996), Czech ice hockey player
• Gabriel Pasternak, character and eponymous episode in the Argentinian film Wild Tales
• Harley Pasternak (born 1974), Canadian-American personal trainer
• Igor Pasternak, Soviet-born US airship designer, founder and CEO of Worldwide Aeros Corp.
• Ilya Pasternak, character in Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation
• James Pasternak, Canadian politician
• Joe Pasternack (born 1977), American college basketball coach
• Joseph "Joe" Pasternak (1901–1991), Hungarian-US film producer
• Josef Pasternack (1881–1940), Polish conductor and composer
• Kenneth Pasternak (born 1954), American businessman
• Leon Pasternak (1910–1969), Polish poet and satirist
• Leonid Pasternak (1862–1945), Russian painter, father of Boris Pasternak
• Marco Pasternak, character in Better Call Saul
• Michael Joseph Pasternak, known as Emperor Rosko (born 1942), American pop music presenter
• Nadja Pasternack (born 1996), Swiss bobsledder
• Natalia Pasternak Taschner, Brazilian microbiologist
• Reagan Pasternak (born 1977), Canadian actress and singer
• Simon Pasternack (1914–1976), physicist and editor
• Simon Pasternak (born 1971), Danish author
• Velvel Pasternak (1933–2019), Canadian-American Jewish ethnomusicologist