I had never heard about that, Kate. Thanks for passing along this historical tidbit!

Damn, I didn't know every GLO had an even more distinct way of naming their chapters than I thought. Cool guys, thanks for the insight.

These are all interesting! Now for a GLO-specific question:

How does KD name their chapters?

I'm curious because my mom's chapter is Delta Sigma and is at the Univ. of South Alabama. South wasn't founded until 1969. However, the Sigma Lambda chapter is at Auburn and has been active since 1922.

Before I stumbled on this thread, I thought pretty much everyone used the system AZD does--Alpha (first chapter) through Omega, then Alpha Alpha through Alpha Omega, Beta Alpha, etc. I knew some organizations let chapters pick their names and that some didn't keep chapter designations school-specific.

Guess it's just that curiosity bug kickin' back in.

from Ordinary Miracles: 100 Years of Kappa Delta Sorority :

"The first few Kappa Delta chapters were named in Greek-alphabet order. But because in the early years the groups were permitted to choose their own names, they soon deviated from this scheme. Chapters like Rho Omega Phi, Phi Delta, Sigma Sigma, Phi Psi, and Sigma Delta elected to keep versions of their local names. Other unusual chapter names are:

Kappa Alpha: So named because KA Order at Florida State College helped the group to organize and advised them which national sorority to petition.

Lambda: Named for Judge William Levere, a national leader of SAE, who was a key figure in the chartering at Northwestern.

Epsilon Omega: Named for Edith Orilla Knox, the National Chapterian who worked with the chatper as the University of Kentucky in securing its charter.

Mu: Named in honor of Marion Mullins, the Millsaps chapter's assistant installing officer, who was National Treasure at the time.

Once the sorority returned to standardized names, the 1919 Convention voted to make "Sigma" the key letter (as in Sigma Epsilon), in honor of retiring National President Marion Mullins, an initiate of Sigma Chapter. When the "Sigmas" were completed, "Alpha" for Alpha Chapter, became the next key letter."


I hope that answers your question!

to add to what ta kala stated-

they seem to pretty much go in order now, but when we colonize from a local, it seems that sometimes they'll pick a chapter name that has significance to that local- either the locals name or something else that has special meaning.

SAI does the same thing as AEPhi and DPhiE...

Alpha through Omega
Sigma Alpha through Sigma Omega
Alpha Alpha through Alpha Omega
Iota Alpha through Iota Omega
Beta Alpha through Beta Omega
Gamma Alpha through Gamma Omega
....
and now we're on the Lambda alphabet! Of course, we skipped "Iota" between the Theta and Kappa alphabets, since those had already been used. There are a few random namings here and there, but I don't know the history of those.

Pi Phi uses what someone called the "state Alpha" method...for instance, there are 3 chapters in Alabama and they're named for the order in which they were founded.

Alabama Alpha--Birmingham Southern
Alabama Beta-University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa
Alabama Gamma--Auburn University :D

We've gone as far as Nu in California!

ZTA named the chapters the usual way of Alpha through Omega, Alpha Alpha through Alpha Omega, Beta Alpha etc.

We skipped over Epsilon, though.

That's interesting - what's the significance of skipping Epsilon?

We skipped over Eta, as I believe several other GLOs have done.

I'm not sure although I've been told it's because ZTA Nationals didn't like the way it sounded.

Kappa Alpha Theta does Greek-alphabet order Alpha through Omega, then Alpha Beta (no double Alpha) through Alpha Omega, then Beta Beta through Beta Omega, Gamma Gamma through Gamma Omega. . . We have no Alpha Alpha but do have double letters after that (Alpha is never used as the second letter in a chapter name). We do not reserve Omega for anything, nor do we have a special chapter for deceased members or for alumnae initiates (alumnae initiates are initiated into a college chapter).

We do have 2 deuteron chapters, both are chapters with confusing histories of switching schools. There are also a few naming anomalies in the very first years of our history, and these chapters are no longer active. We now reserve the chapter name of a disestablished chapter, so it gets the same name back should it be reestablished (with no deuteron or other special designation).

We recently installed our Eta Mu and Eta Nu chapters.

Sigma Phi Epsilon goes with state then greek letter. For instance, my chapter is New York Eta. This means that means that we are the 7th chapter of SigEp in New York.

Isn't your chapter at the U of Arkansas the Epsilon chapter?

The Epsilons were skipped (Epsilon Alpha through Epsilon Omega) but, yes, the University of Arkansas chapter is Epsilon.