Kovacs or Kovács, or in its Slavic variant spelling Kovač, is a common family name. (There are similar names with the Kováts and Kovách form with the same origin.) Kovács means smith in the Hungarian language; the word came from Slavonic Kovač, and has the same meaning in some Slavic languages.
The name translates to the English name Smith. There are 221,687 people in Hungary who are called Kovács, making the name the second most common family name among Hungarians.
- Ágnes Kovács (born 1981), Hungarian swimmer
- Bill Kovacs (1949–2006), American pioneer of commercial computer animation technology
- Dan Kovacs (born 1970), American world champion powerlifter
- Edit Kovács (born 1954), Hungarian fencer
- Ella Kovacs (born 1964), Romanian athlete
- Ernie Kovacs (1919–1962), American entertainer from the early days of television
- Ervin Kováts (1927–2012) Hungarian born Swiss chemist known for the Kovats retention index
- Frank Kovacs (1919–1990), American tennis player in the 1940s
- Fred Kovacs, American soccer player
- Gábor Kovács (financier) (born 1957), Hungarian financier, banker, art collector, philanthropist and founder of KOGART
- Greg Kovacs (born 1968), American bodybuilder
- Iván Kovács (born 1970), Hungarian fencer
- János Kovács (born 1985), Hungarian footballer
- Joe Kovacs (born 1967), American Puppeteer
- Kálmán Kovács (doctor), Hungarian-Canadian doctor and researcher
- Kálmán Kovács (born 1965), Hungarian football (soccer) player
- Katalin Kovács (born 1976), Hungarian canoer
- László Kovács (politician) (born 1939), Hungarian politician and diplomat
- László Kovács (cinematographer) (1933–2007), Hungarian-American cinematographer
- László Kovács (actor) (born 1978), Peruvian actor
- Magda Kósáné Kovács (born 1940), Hungarian politician and Member of the European Parliament
- Pál Kovács (1912–1995), Hungarian fencer
- Péter Kovács (footballer) (born 1978), Hungarian footballer
- Richard Kovacs (1885–1950), physician
- Rita Kovács, Hungarian swimmer
- Sándor J. Kovács (born 1947), Hungarian-American cardiologist
- Ştefan Kovacs (1920–1995), Romanian former football manager
- Viktor Kovács (born 1973), Hungarian track and field athlete
- George Kovács (born 1956), Founder Ping Kwon Do
- Zsófia Kovács (born 1988), a Hungarian triathlete
Fictional characters:
- Takeshi Kovacs, a fictional character in three books by Richard Morgan
- Walter Kovacs, the identity of the character Rorschach, in the DC Comic series Watchmen
- Kirilli Kovacs, a character in Darren Shan's series, The Demonata.