Has anyone tried to compile a list of where the names of all the giants come from? Some of them are obvious, some of them less so, and ome I have no idea about. Here's what I have so far, in rough order from ones I'm most confident about to ones I'm least confident about.
Friendly - direct use of an English word, to denote that he's friendly. Possibly a reference to the Big Friendly Giant of Roald Dahl's BFG?
Pot - direct use of the English word pot, referring to a cooking pot, since Pot is primarily involved in cooking.
Alph - reference to the Greek letter Alpha, the first letter of the Greek alphabet. This represents Alph's role as the giant of creation.
Cosma - reference to the cosmos. Cosma is the giant of the sky, which is traditionally seen as the location of the stars, planets, and the whole of creation outside of the earth.
Spriggan - likely a reference to the word sprig, meaning a small shoot or twig, referencing Spriggan's dominion over trees. Possibly also a reference to the spriggans which were a type of fairy like creature from Cornish mythology.
Lem - maybe a reference to science fiction author Stanislaw Lem?
Mab - could be a reference to the fairy of the same name, who has appeared in numerous works of fiction. I don't know of any link between that Mab and the focus on gardening and harvest that our Mab has.
Humbaba - the name is very similar to the type of pastry, the rum baba, and I doubt that's a coincidence. I'm not sure what connection that has to Humbaba the giant, though. Edit: forget my first speculation. This is probably a reference to the giant of the same name in Akkadian mythology.
Tii - maybe a reference to Texas Instruments (TI) calculators, given that Tii is constantly calculating prime numbers?
Grendaline - sounds a bit like grenadine, which is a liquid, at least? Could also be a reference to Grendel from the epic poem, Beowulf?
Zille - Zeal? Zillion? I've no clue.
Any ideas, anyone?