Piggy banks are not so named because they are made in the image of pigs – not entirely, anyway. In medieval times one meaning of pig or pygg was “an earthenware pot, pitcher, jar, or crock,” pig or pygg having been a word for clay. Housewives often saved small coins in these earthenware containers, but it wasn’t until the nineteenth century that some unknown potters got the idea to make one in the shape of a pig, like its coincidental namesake. The pig or pygg in the shape of a pig became so popular and commonplace that today its name is applied to any small bank for saving coins, whether it is shaped like a pig or not.