Groups that changed names
 

It is interesting to learn how many of our current day fraternities & sororities once had a name different from what we know them today. Some changed to avoid duplicating another group, others to take Greek letters, and yet others for reasons unknown. Maybe members of some of the organizations can fill us in. Here are the groups I have discovered:

Alpha Delta Pi from Alpha Delta Phi from Adelphian
Beta Sigma Psi - Concordia Club
Delta Upsilon - Equitable Fraternity - Anti-Secret Confederation
Kappa Alpha Order - Phi Kappa Chi
Phi Kappa Tau - Phrenocon - Non-Fraternity Association
Phi Kappa Theta - Phi Kappa Sigma
Phi Mu - Philomathean
Phi Mu Delta - Commons Club
Phi Sigma Kappa - T T T
Pi Beta Phi - I. C. Sorosis
Sigma Chi - Sigma Phi
Sigma Phi Epsilon - Sigma Phi - Saturday Night Club
Sigma Pi - Tau Phi Delta
Tau Delta Phi - Phi Sigma Beta
Tau Kappa Epsilon - Knights of the Clasic Lore
Theta Xi - Sigma Delta
Zeta Beta Tau - Home Fraternity

Alpha Kai Omega- Alpha Chi Omega

The previous name didn't last very long (Kai means "and" in Greek) but it was our name for a time. :)

More an evolution than an outright change, I guess, but:

Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia from The Sinfonia Fraternity (or simply The Sinfonia) from The Sinfonia Club.

And would this one count?

Zeta Tau Alpha from ???

(Whether it counts as a change or not, it's cool enough to bring up anyway.)

unnamed social and study club -----> Alpha Phi Alpha Society ------> Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

Kappa Delta was originally called Sigma Sigma but changed their name when Sigma Sigma Sigma was started at Longwood.

It is true that Kappa Delta was originally called Sigma Sigma, but we didn't change our name because Sigma Sigma Sigma was founded. Tri Sigma was founded in 1898, and KD was founded in 1897, so our name was in place before Tri Sigma's founding.

Do mergers count?

Phi Sigma Epsilon with Phi Sigma Kappa. 1985
Theta Kappa Nu with Lambda Chi Alpha. 1939

An FYI: it's Adelphean, not Adelphian. There is no "I" in our sisterhood! ;)

Didn't Tri Sigma used to be S.S.S.? Correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm pretty sure the change actually was because of Tri Sigma. The early KDs didn't want to announce their name (Sigma Sigma) until it was revealed in the school annual. But before the annual came out Tri-Sigma announced their name. SS/KD went back and changed the name of the sorority.

I'm not sure that this is covered in Ordinary Miracles but it's definitely in the older histories.

Theta Phi Alpha was refounded from Omega Upsilon and absorbed Pi Lambda Sigma.

Alpha Delta Pi changed from Alpha Delta Phi to avoid confusion with the men's fraternity of the same name.

1851 - The Adelphean Society
1905 - Alpha Delta Phi
1913 - Alpha Delta Pi

A rarity among pins:

You are correct! Sigma Sigma Sigma began in the fall of 1897 at the Normal School in Farmville, VA as the S.S.S. club. After much planning by our Founders during their initial meetings as the S.S.S. club, they officially announced the founding of Sigma Sigma Sigma on April 20, 1898.

On an interesting note, Julie Tyler, one of Kappa Delta's founders, was roommates with one of our Founders, Lucy Wright.

Haha, Jocelyn beat me by 5 minutes...

It is interesting to learn how many of our current day fraternities & sororities once had a name different from what we know them today. Some changed to avoid duplicating another group, others to take Greek letters, and yet others for reasons unknown. Maybe members of some of the organizations can fill us in. Here are the groups I have discovered:

Alpha Delta Pi from Alpha Delta Phi from Adelphian
Beta Sigma Psi - Concordia Club
Delta Upsilon - Equitable Fraternity - Anti-Secret Confederation
Kappa Alpha Order - Phi Kappa Chi
Phi Kappa Tau - Phrenocon - Non-Fraternity Association
Phi Kappa Theta - Phi Kappa Sigma
Phi Mu - Philomathean
Phi Mu Delta - Commons Club
Phi Sigma Kappa - T T T
Pi Beta Phi - I. C. Sorosis
Sigma Chi - Sigma Phi
Sigma Phi Epsilon - Sigma Phi - Saturday Night Club
Sigma Pi - Tau Phi Delta
Tau Delta Phi - Phi Sigma Beta
Tau Kappa Epsilon - Knights of the Clasic Lore
Theta Xi - Sigma Delta
Zeta Beta Tau - Home Fraternity

The secret society name of Zeta Beta Tau (ZBT) was Zion Be-mishpat Tipadeh, which means "Zion shall be redeemed with justice and return upon to it with righteousness." This name was originally used by a youth society of German and Austrian men under the Jewish faith from University of Vienna, Austria. The American secret society, Z.B.T. was structured from this youth society until the name and organizational structure was changed to a Greek-Letter Fraternity.

Took out the "the."

Actually, I think Theta Xi has always been Theta Xi.

It's true that all of the founders of Theta Xi were former members of Sigma Delta. Sigma Delta had been dissolved a month earlier and no longer existed. Theta Xi was an entirely new group with no ties to Sigma Delta. All that is according the the national website.

I'll have to ask Mr. PinkRose tonight.

Along those same lines, was Phi Sigma Kappa ever called TTT? Their national website is pretty much silent on the subject of history, but here is what their Iota chapter website says:

Clay was elected president of the group which for its first five years had no name. Its cryptic characters could not be pronounced, either (a problem which they had not really considered since it was a secret society). Outsiders referred to them by names such as "T, double T, T upside-down," "The Huddlers," and others.

This makes it sound like any names based on the three Ts were used by non-members, not by members. (And it makes no mention of TTT)?

Any Phi Sigs out there who can shed some light?

Phi Kappa Theta - Phi Kappa Sigma

I believe Phi Kappa Sigma is still operating and has no connection to Phi Kappa Theta.

A friend who is a Phi Kappa Theta told me that his fraternity was the result of merging Theta Kappa Phi with Phi Kappa.

Phi Kappa Sigma was the original name of Phi Kappa, founded at Brown University, from 1889 until 1900. It was originally intended to remain a local club and the Greek letters stood for Fraternity of Catholic Students. When they determined to become a national fraternity they had to change the name because a Phi Kappa Sigma already existed. When Phi Kappa merged with Theta Kappa Phi in 1959 the name changed to Phi Kappa Theta. This information is per Phi Kappa's entry in an earlier Baird's Manual.

RE: Theta Xi

Sigma Delta was a local fraternity founded at RPI in 1859. Dissention in the organization arose and approximately half left to form Theta Xi in 1864. The other half petitioned Sigma Phi for a charter but were denied. I am not sure if it folded or was the predecessor to Delta Phi, Zeta Psi, DKE or Chi Phi, all chartered at RPI shortly thereafter. Actually, Theta Xi was proposed to be called Theta Psi until they discovered a local group at Yale by the same name. Again, old Baird's are the main source for the above.

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Thanks for the info. That makes sense of it all for me.

That's different though from saying they changed their name, though. They withdrew from one organization and formed a new one.

Interesting nonetheless.

Delphian Society- Psi Upsilon Society- Psi Upsilon Fraternity, though it was more of a splintering from the Delphian Society then the whole thing transforming.

Pi Kappa Phi- Nu Phi (meaning Non-fraternity). At first, we were a literacy club called Chrestomathics.

I just realized nobody said the classic.

Societas Philosophiae- Phi Beta Kappa

Alpha Phi was originally known as The Michaelanean Society.

Tau Delta from the Tomo Dachi club.

I never knew that...and I've read a lot about all the NPCs. Very interesting! Can you tell us anything about that old name or is it secret?

No secret- here's an excerpt from our website:

Rena A. Michaels Atchison
...was the first president of Alpha Phi, and the Michaelanean Society derives its name from hers. The Michaelanean Society still exists as a corporation and owns the Alpha Phi Syracuse chapter house.

Thanks! I love NPC history!

Delta Sigma Theta (christian fraternity) ====> Sigma Theta Epsilon

DST was as a result of a merger between two Christian fraternities: Phi Tau Theta (founded 1925 in Lincoln, NE) and Sigma Epsilon Theta (founded 1936 at Indiana University). The name change to Sigma Theta Epsilon was for "obvious" reasons (albeit discovered 8 years after the fact).

Phi Gamma Delta (black sorority) ====> Gamma Phi Delta

Similar to the STE name change, Phi Gamma Delta changed its name for obvious reasons as well, although in G Phi D's case, they had a major incentive in their favor for doing so, among which was $10,000 cash (in 1945 dollars) and all expenses related to the name change paid in full. This was due to a technicality discovered that put the suing FIJI fraternity at a major disadvantage.

It was FIJI never registered their name, right?

To clarify and add to this, Delta Upsilon began as "The Social Fraternity" at Williams College in 1834. In 1874, the Williams group, by then known as the Equitable Fraternity, met with groups from Union College (The Equitable Union), Hamilton College (The Social Fraternity or Theta Sigma), and Amherst College (Delta Sigma). Together, these four groups formed the "Anti-Secrecy Confederation."

The fraternity was officially known as the Anti-Secrecy Confederation until the Convention of 1864, when the name Delta Upsilon was officially adopted. This name had been in common use for many years, the Delta Upsilon member badge having been adopted in 1858.


(All of this information is provided on the Delta Upsilon website, except the Williams name change to Equitable Fraternity, which comes from, "Challenge, Conflict, and Change" by Orville Read, Missouri '33 which is the 100th Anniversary book)


Dikaia

Alpha Delta Chi (christian Sorority) was origionally Areta meaning virtue, but they changed it to Alpha Delta Chi :)