As previously stated the golem legends have been in Jewish and Eastern European myths and legends for countless centuries. Whilst I do not doubt that Professor Tolkien had heard of these legends I don't think that these were the origins of Gollum's name.
The name is just the representation of the sound:
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"And when he said gollum he made a horrible swallowing noise in his throat."
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Then in LotR:The Uruk-Hai, Pippin is trying to convince Grishnįk that he has the Ring:
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Then suddenly in the darkness he made a noise in his throat gollum, gollum.
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Note the small case 'g' as it appears in the text of both The Hobbit and LotR.
As to the significance of Gollum's swallowing habit. A nervous 'tick'? A dry cough brought on by his habitat or diet? A physical manifestation of his 'swallowing' his guilt over the murder of his cousin? We will probably never know. But it is fun to speculate even so.
