Why are they called guinea pigs?

A guinea pig named Rodney, voiced by Chris Rock, was a prominent character in the 1998 film Dr. Dolittle, and Linny the Guinea pig is a co-star on Nick Jr.'s Wonder Pets. Guinea pigs were used in some major advertising campaigns in the 1990s and 2000s, notably for Egg Banking plc, Snapple, and Blockbuster Video. read more

However, evidence does not support this conjecture: for example, the Dutch name refers to the country of Guinea rather than the British coin, and the first guinea pig was described in 1554 by the Swiss naturalist Konrad Gesner more than a hundred years before the first guinea was struck.[citation needed] Others believe guinea is a corruption of the word coney, because guinea pigs were called pig coneys in 1607 [1]; they resemble rabbits, ignoring the ears. read more

In Greek they are called indika xoiridia (ινδικά χοιρίδια, Small Indian Pigs), and in Portuguese, the term is porquinho da Índia ("little pig of India"). In Italian the term is either Porcellino D'India (Little Indian Pig) or Cavia Peruviana (Peruvian Cavy). read more