Topic

Giant name origins

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?

Posted 14 months ago by Rhoswen Jones Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • Possible origins of Humbaba.
    Posted 14 months ago by Rev. Desdemona Subscriber! | Permalink
  • <in character>Ah my little Glitch, the Giants' names are what they are. Will you ever figure out where their names came from and what they mean? Maybe not, but by trying to imagine how they came about you give them thanks and praise. For imagination is what Ur is all about.</in character>

    I try not to overthink the origins of the Giants' names like I will ignore overthinking a Plate of Beans.

    — Mal'akhPrimate of LemPrimus Inter Pares of the Orthodox Church of the Giants of Ur,Hubby of ArannaShriner of Mullangi Meda
    Posted 14 months ago by Mal'akh Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I feel like a "The More You Know" shooting-star banner just appeared across my life.
    Posted 14 months ago by Sparklebooty Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Mab - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Mab The first half has a lot of out-doorsy imagery. Possible connection to garden/outdoor.
    Posted 14 months ago by dalegribble Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Cool post. I have come to similar conclusions on many of the names. Didn't catch Tii tho. It adds to your theory that I've also seen frequent references to him as "Ti" instead of "Tii".

    I was wondering about area names today, because I noticed Cebarkul sounds like "Sparkle" said with a cold. Intentional or not. Curious about how so many things got their names. :)
    Posted 14 months ago by Wynella Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Very interesting ideas, especially the Tii and Texas Instruments!

    Never thought of that, Wynella :o All I've noticed were Khoul Bheens and Karpal Tunnel haha.
    Posted 14 months ago by TomC Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Desdemona: Good spot. Have edited my post accordingly.

    Dalegribble: Possibly, but a bit of a stretch. I do think it's likely that that's where the name is from, but I don't think I'm willing to consider it settled just yet.

    Wynella: Point of order, but Tii is not a he. Tii is... well, Tii is a Tii. :D

    I'm not sure about the streets, but I've been told by friends that a lot of street names are based on words from other languages. I can't remember which ones, but I do remember there are some that are based on Finnish.
    Posted 14 months ago by Rhoswen Jones Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Ahh. My apologies to the entity known as Tii then. ;)

    Finnish, eh? Guess it's time to have Google Translate open in another tab as I run around.
    Posted 14 months ago by Wynella Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Godzilla = god zille
    :-D
    Posted 14 months ago by Osprey Subscriber! | Permalink
  • None of the names of the Giants are based on anything in Finnish as far as I can tell.

    Plenty of street names are though. For example many of the streets in Chakra Phool are named after Finnish lakes, rivers and towns.
    Posted 14 months ago by ruipelo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The Stanislaw Lem connection appears even more relevant when one considers his novel, 'Solaris' - where things take form as they are imagined (simplified, it's a bit more complex than that).
    Posted 14 months ago by TK-855 Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'd say it's quite likely Spriggan is meant to reference the fairies. They tended to be pretty malevolent on the whole, blighting crops, making people sick, that kind of thing. They also had the ability to expand to giant size.
    Posted 14 months ago by idonotlikepeas Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I always thought Spriggan was referencing the gnome/fairy too.
    Posted 14 months ago by Zurin Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Re: Cebarkul, I think it's named after Chebarkul town in Russia which is in the Ural mountains = Uralia. And Ilmenskie has something to do with Lake Ilmen in Russia. Oktyabrya is a Russian word too, meaning "of October".
    Posted 14 months ago by Fussycat Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I enjoy how the road with the key for Neva Neva is called Keywot Whot :)
    Posted 14 months ago by Ellieco Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Humbaba -  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humbaba
    Posted 14 months ago by Innie✿, Obviously Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm so upset my Cebarkul theory seems busted. ;) Interesting info ruipelo & Fussycat! 
    Posted 14 months ago by Wynella Subscriber! | Permalink
  • When I think Lem, I cannot help but think of Lemmy, lead singer of Motorhead.
    Posted 13 months ago by MrVolare Subscriber! | Permalink
  • This makes me think more of Humbaba, mostly because it sounds like another form of the word and actually relates to a cow - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Au%C3...
    Posted 13 months ago by Gunnr Subscriber! | Permalink