From what I've seen the guards are usually the initials of the chapter so "TU" for Transylvania - although many chapter names omit the "university" so they could get away with ordering a "Tau" guard. Likewise our Northwest Missouri chapter can get away with ordering a "Nu Mu" guard but not all chapters (like mine) have Greek-English equivalents.

Wow, thanks everyone for your answers, I think I get it now :o

Lol, yeah I did! I wanted my username to be FaithHopeLove and then picked random greek letters to make it look different - Apologies if I offended anyone :o

I never thought of starting a Sorority, and I definitely won't now :D I just wanted to know what thoughts go into naming a Sorority because I'm new to Greek life and want to understand the naming process behind the Sororities I want to join so I don't get confused when I meet someone from a different chapter.

Thanks for all your help!

Well, just to let you know, your username actually is Fdith Hqpe Lole. Greek letters often look NOTHING like their English equivalents (despite what a passel of graphic design firms or clothing manufacturers would have you believe).

Ironically the proper letters for the first two actually look like the english equivalent. Is there even a v sound in Greek?

But then they wouldn't be cool Greek letters :o

My username wasn't *supposed* to look like it contained the English equivalents of the Greek letters, it was supposed to look like I substituted the letters A, O, and V with symbols that *looked* like the English letters, not *translated* into English letters...

But why would you want to have a username that makes no sense? Greek letters aren't just fun symbols, they are letters in an alphabet.

It's kind of the equivalent of getting a Chinese tattoo that looks cool and then finding out it means "cabbage skyscraper" or something of the like.

ΦΑΙΘ ΗΟΠΕ ΛΟΒΕ

The proper way to spell it.

Ok, I already apologised - I can't change it so can we just get over it now?

Actually, yes you can change it.

Are you Canadian? Or Brit?

Are there rumours?

A few exceptions in the NPC:

*Alpha Omicron Pi allows each colony to choose the chapter designation, usually based on a chapter sub-motto. For example, the colony at the University of Arkansas became the Xi Omicron chapter, for "excellence overall".
*Alpha Epsilon Phi goes Alpha to Omega, Alpha Alpha to Alpha Omega, Epsilon Alpha to Epsilon Omega, Phi Alpha to Phi Omega, and then resumes with the Betas. Delta Phi Epsilon also does this, except their first three sets after the single letter chapters are Delta, Phi and Epsilon.
*Chi Omega does the basic system, but backwards and omitting Omega. The second letter is the "set". The first chapter is Psi, then Chi, then Phi...then Psi Alpha, Chi Alpha, Phi Alpha...Alpha Alpha, then Psi Beta, Chi Beta, Phi Beta....Alpha Beta.
*Kappa Delta has many chapters not named in the conventional manner. Some designations were given to honor people, the school, or the locals that KD absorbed. See these two posts by Leslie Anne and ta kala. (Thank you Shellfish!)
*Pi Beta Phi names chapters by the state and the order it was chartered in that state. Virginia Alpha, Virginia Beta, Virginia Gamma...Ohio Alpha, Ohio Beta, etc.
*Alpha Gamma Delta names chapters by region. The first Greek letter is the region designation and the second is the order in which that chapter was chartered within the region. (Thank you VandalSquirrel!) Any Phi Mus correct me if I am wrong, but I believe Phi Mu also does this too.

Chi Omega, Alpha Epsilon Phi and Delta Phi Epsilon have really interesting systems.

Same with SigEp (which was mentioned). But also kind of interesting, we also used to go by Alpha, Beta...Psi, Omega, Beta Alpha.. etc. But then at some point (I believe it was after our merger with Tau Upsilon Omega), the chapter designations were switched to states and Greek letters. Also, we don't have a North Carolina Alpha chapter. I think it's because of both a SPE and TUO chapter closing and rechartering? I really don't remember.

And California and Pennsylvania are the only states I believe with double letters (ex. CA Beta Gamma, PA Beta Alpha).

Some previous posts about KD chapters' letters:
http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...&postcount=151
http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...&postcount=156