Jeb Mortier, Laurie Mortier, Jordan Mortier, Aubrey Mortier & Amberly Mortier's personal website

I've thought about this question myself. I like looking up why things or words are called what they are or how they came about -- especially when they don't make sense! So, here is my first research on the "wonder" item, and what I have found out about it.

Does pigs really save anything? Are they known for saving food when the winter time comes? Ants are often talked about in the Bible for analogies on diligence and hardwork, because ants gather and store food all the time, not wasting any day for laziness. And then, we know that dogs would bury their food, particularly bones. Camels store water in their humps so that they can travel many days in the dessert. Yup, those humps in the back of camels are their water storage containers. Squirrels, they gather nuts and store them away for the winter. But not pigs. They don't store anything. They don't save. They don't bury.

So why save our coins and money in a piggy bank? This is because a long time ago during the Middle Ages (about the 15th century), metal was expensive and seldom used for household objects. These household wares before was made out of an economical clay called pygg. This is also where our earthenware comes from. Anyway, back then, people often saved their money in their jars and pots made of clay (pygg), which they call "pygg jars" or "pygg pots". Well, eventually through the years, the spelling of "pygg" had changed and so had the term "pygg jar", which evolved to "pig bank". Thus, it is what we commonly know and call as the "piggy bank" now.

Another reason for the name piggy bank that has been put forward is based upon the idea that the coins given to the piggy bank represent the food fed to a pig by the farmer. It costs the farmer money to feed the pig which he does not get back until the pig is slaughtered for the meat (represented by breaking the piggy bank) which the farmer can then sell. (Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/piggy-bank)

Anyhow, over the next two to three hundred years, people forgot that "pygg" referred to the earthenware material. When English potters in the 19th centruy received requests for piggy banks made, they produced these banks which they shaped like a pig. Well, of course, the cute-shaped pig appealed to a lot of customers and especially the children... which made its way to the present.

So, that is how we came to the term "Piggy Bank" *oink, oink*