lol, see post 22 by TSteven. Some of the Fijis use the university name. Assuming that Alpha Upsilon had been used, it's conceivable that Sigma Alpha Nu could have used Delta Phi.

/don't know if you're serious or joking about the word plays, but I am good at them :D Also Sudoku! :p

LOL! I was/am serious that you figured that out and was even going to say, hey, you must rock at Sudoku! (I totally stink at both!)

The second Beta Constitution (1840) provided for names to be given to chapters. Following a practice prevalent at the time, chapters were named for their geographic location. For example, the University of Ohio, the Athens Chapter or Jefferson College, the Canonsburg Chapter.

By 1842, the Constitution was amended to provide that each chapter be given a Greek-letter name indicating it's priority of establishment. hence, Miami University (Ohio) became Alpha in 1839, Cincinnati became Beta in 1840, Western Reserve became Gamma in 1841, etc. While exceptions have occurred, for the most part this practice has been followed ever since.

Following that naming convention, we name our chapters in Greek-letter order (Alpha, Beta, Gamma ... Alpha Alpha, Alpha Beta, Alpha Gamma, etc.). That being said, If you look at the list of ALL of our chapters (active and closed), you'll notice that some letters (i.e. Chapter names) were skipped and then revisited in later years. We are currently in the Zeta range somewhere near Zeta Sigma I think.

Bumping cause I like this thread.

To add on to this, the designations of some early chapters that closed after only a few years were then used for chapters that opened in the early 1880s. After the 1890 convention, I believe, it was decided those chapters would have the letter "Beta" preceeding the original chapter name to designate they were the second chapter of that letter (does that make any sense?)

So when the chapter at Iowa opened in 1882 they were originally known as the Zeta chapter, but after 1890, they became the Beta Zeta chapter because they were the second chapter to use the letter Zeta, and that is how they are known today. So there are some two-letter chapters that are actually older than some single letter chapters.

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Alpha Delt doesn't use the greek letter naming convention normally, except when a local fraternity is allowed to keep their name as a chapter designator, ie: Lambda Phi (MIT), Northeastern (Nu Epsilon Zeta). Chapters are named after the school, Massachusetts, Cornell, Harvard, etc., the town the school is located in, Middletown, or in a few cases some geographic feature, such as the Great Lakes or Peninsular Chapters.

For information about Pi Kappa Sigma's early years a good bet if you cn find it is the book "Golden Years with Pi Kappa Sigma 1894 - 1949," by Emma Newell Seaton (historian). It's hardcover, 529 pages plus index, but only take the sorority up to 1949, long before the merger. It might still be around in some college libraries or used bookstores, as well as possibly some of the SK chapters that were formerly Pi Kappa Sigma.

ETA: Back to the topic: Pi Kappa Sigma used the Alpha - to- Omega, then Alpha Alpha ans so on system, with very rare exceptions. For instance the Pi Kappa Sigma chapter at Southwest Missouri State *should* have been "Alpha Upsilon," but it was formed from a local, Theta Nu Theta. and

"So great was the attachment to the parent name that the petitioners asked permission of the Grand council of Pi Kappa Sigma to keep at least part of that name . . . ."

The result? The chapter designation was Theta Nu.

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I know earlier in the thread they talked about FIJI chapters being named after their towns or their schools. But what about the FIJI chapter at the University of Georgia-- Kappa Deuteron. Anyone know where this came from?

I think that Fiji naming scheme is pretty cool. Mostly because I know Fiji's who are awesome guys.

Question: So how do you determine your oldest chapters if you don't do it by a standard 1) letter, then 2) two letter form?

For instance, in Sigma Nu if I hear a chapter update from a single letter chapter, I KNOW it's some old-school chapter founded in the 1800's. (Beta is the oldest still active chapter. As our founding site, VMI, no longer allows fraternities)

How do you know?

Pike goes in order of alphabet, then repeats with Alpha Alpha and so on.

Cool.... So if someone says Im' from the Gamma chapter you're like. Niiiice.

How does it work with your organization if a chapter is closed and then rechartered? Do they take the old name or a new one?

What do you mean?

If you're asking me, we've only had 48 chapters in all, so we just learn them in order.