Formal name for Bigs/Littles?
 

Just curious -- does your GLO have a formal name for the big/little sister/brother program?

For example, in Alpha Gam we call 'em sister-mothers and sister-daughters. IIRC, in Alpha Chi the big is the "mystagogue," which I think means something like a guide to the mysteries.

Anyone else?

I call mine Chris.

My question was what your GLO calls the program. I kinda doubt your fellows all refer to their Big Chrises and their Little Chrises...

LOL, actually my little calls his big brother Chris, it being my name and all. :p

Sorry, no formal Greek-name for big/little brothers in my fraternity.

Lol. My bad. I really need a nap.

In Phi Sigma Sigma we have Sapphire Sisters... and in TBS we have sponsors... its all Big and Little to me!

With us, it seems to vary from chapter to chapter. Before we get a big sister, though, we get a Beta Buddy like the AOPis get Panda Pals and the ChiOs get Owl Pals.

In Phi Mu we call them Carnation sisters, but here we call them big sis and lil sis. :D

While an undergrad, we incorporated a new "heart sister" program that came from above, I think to keep from calling women "little sisters". Well, I am not sure how that fared, since we just started calling each other "big heart sister", "little heart sister" anyway. From reading the other NPC groups' names, i.e. "Sapphire Sister", etc., I would gather that this was a national movement to eliminate nicknames that may or may not connote superiority/inferiority. I personally LOVED being someone's little sister, since I had no siblings of my own. Thoughts?:cool:

At Alpha Chi Omega we formally call them mystagogues. But at my chapter we call them Moms and Dotters. We call our temps Lyre Buddies.

at my chapter (Chi Omega) we had grand big sis, Big sis, little sis, grandlittle sis, you get the idea, just add great "onto" the beginning to continue the tree.

Before your big sis, you had "F.F.F.s", (pronounced "fufufu's") which stood for fine feathered friends.

We've always called ours bigs and littles. We also have Pearl Pals and during NME, we have Guardian Angels. You don't know who they are until after pledging is over, but during it, they give you little gifts and notes of encouragement and support It's really neat to find out who it is in the end, and it gives younger women the opportunity to get a feeling for being a big before it happens.

We have Berry Buddies before we are given an official Big Sister.

I know that ADPi does not have a big/lil sisters. They are actually referred to as Diamond Sisters.

In my chapter of Pi Phi we start out with Bid Day Buddies and we hang out with them on bid day, mine was the girl who prefed me. Then we get Guardian Angels who leave us presents and notes each week at the pledge meetings. Each week we are paired with a different Phi Friend who we get to go hang out with. It's a nice way to meet a lot of the girls in the chapter. After the pledge retreat we get our Big Sisters. I'm so excited for the pledge retreat! It sounds like so much fun! :D

Jess

Well, we start with Rush Crushes, which aren't given, it's just who rushed you and you liked them and it just happened a lot. After than, you get a Violet Sis ( a temp big sis to welcome you to the chapter, answer your questions, help you, and generally make you feel welcome!) Then, it used to be Mom-Dot (mother-daughter) but now it's Big sis/Lil sis. We had grand-big, and aunts, and twins and such, that grew into families (twins were two lil sis's to one big sis in a pledge class, my aunt would be my Bis sis' twin, and my cousins, my aunt's lils.) It sounds more complicated than it was. I don't think that they do families any more though, but as long as you have a special someone who cares, it doesn't matter what it's called.

In AOII, they are officially known as Big Sister / Little Sister. Some chapters also call then Panda Pals, Alpha Sisters, Rose Buddies etc.

Our chapter gives the pledge a Rose sister at the pledging cermony...kinda like the temporary big....and halfway to the formal iniation we do the pick 3 for the matching up of Big/Lils. We are real big on keeping family trees and we informally get Big Bros too.

I don't know if every DG chapter does this, but we give the new members on bid day bronze, pink, and blue buddies that give them different things or take them to lunch, etc. Then they get their bigs which we call many different things. Most of us stick with Big and Lil, while some go with Anchormate which was used before I joined in Fall '99. We pretty much stick with the traditional and just be creative with our shirts by putting whatever we want on them :)

Delta Gamma
Eta Chapter

We just called our mom's and dot's that...mom's and dot's, they were given on bid day.

Our bigs we called "Sigma Bigma's". I have no idea why and other chapters thought it was funny. Little's were just called little's.

I want a big sister. Does anybody do that? Where they adopt clueless frat boys like me?

Clueless fraternity boy seeking big sis...LOL

When I was an active I was a princess of Phi Delta Theta, and we actually had big bros and little bro's...Pi Phi actually frowns on little sister organizations nationally, but I have to be honest, I loved having a big and little bro, they were both great guys and we had a lot of fun.

By the way, you're missing out on not having a big sis -- I spoiled my little bro rotten! Maybe you could put something in the want-ads?!? I'm sure some nice GLO lady would adopt you! I would but I'm just too darn old:)

In ADPi before we get our Diamond Sisters we are first given Lion Sisters to help us get into the transition of ADPi life.. Our Diamond Sisters however, well mine at least is soo awesome!! I can't wait to get my own new diamond sis so that I can spoil her rotten just like mine did =)

Here at Gamma Phi Beta, we have moms, daughters, grandmas.....real families. Our new members are called moonbabies before they are initiated because our chapter's symbol is the crescent moon.

Omptimist Prime!: I call mine Chris too!

haha anyway, SAE doesn't have any formal name for the whole program - but there are some chapters who have particular traditions regarding families.

Well, I guess it's since we're a *minority* and we refer to slang. Our *families* I guess you can call them are reffered to as *Krew'z*, which go by nickname. (IE....my nickname iz J-Trip...and I'm a founding father, so my family name will be J-KrEw.....one of my bro'z nickname is J-Sin...and his family name will be SiNFULL-KrEw). We haven't started our pledge process yet, so I don't have my *Lil Bro* yet...so...yea...none of this has happened yet..but we already know what everything is.

As for sisters...we're gonna just call the whole sister program Nu Sister'z...if one become's a Nu Sister, she retains that title forever.

Is that still true? They were big/ little when I was initiated, and changed to carnation sisters when mine was initiated. I heard they had gone back to big/little at some point, though. Was I misinformed? Just curious.

carnation sisters
 

At my chapter we call them Carnation sisters, but to make it shorter we stick with big/lil and in fact my family calls the older ones grandma and great grandma, etc. I guess mostly as a term of endearment, but also sarcasm, since compared to my 18 yr. old grandlittle, I seem ancient, but still have lots of Phi Mu wisdom to pass on...like our biological Grandmothers.

So to answer your question, technically they are called Carnation sisters.

tara :)
---to practice day by day
love, honor, truth---

[SIZE=small]Actually... in ADPi we DO have big/little sisters. We refer to them as Diamond sisters... for example, my best friend Melissa is my Diamond sis, and I call her my Diamond big... she usually just calls me her diamond. Before we receive our official diamond sisters however, on Bid day we receive temporary Pi Pals.[/SIZE]

-Lauren
Zeta '02
Southwestern University, TX

"Be beautiful if you can, wise if you want to...but be respected--that is essential."
--Anna Gould

a diamond is a girls best friend ;)
our chapter also has violet sisters, who our new members have until they receive their diamond sis, but technically we're not supposed to do that.... oops! we have prides (like lion prides) that are supposed to act as a 'family' and support our new members too...

Big/Little
 

My friend who's a DZ has Turtle Buddies and Rose buddies-I always thought that was cute!But that is before initiation. After initiation they are called Big's & Little. My old roomie was an ADPi and she had a diamond sister. My sorority always called them Big Sis & little Sis.We had "anchor Angels" before initiation.

"Moon Babies" -- THAT IS SO ADORABLE!!! Gamma Phi didn't do that at my school...

Im a DG too and ours in pretty much the same although our pink/blue/bronze sisters are given to us one by one each week. They usually give us a little gift of DG stuff like a cup or a sticker or a picture frame. Then after the first three weeks we get our big sisters which is the same as everyone else and they give us a bunch of stuff and we have to figure otu who they are.

Re: Formal name for Bigs/Littles?
 

In APO, big/little programs are something left to each chapter. Most call them 'Big Brother/Little Brother', but as we are co-ed (yes, everyone is called "Brother"), many usually say 'Big' and 'Little'.

In Alpha Sigma Alpha, on your new member ceremony you get a ruby sis who is like a big and then the little is the pearl sis... and then you get a real big sis later on... we used to do the mom-dot thing and big/lil but they changed it...

At my school (ACW)... the new girls get a Mystogogue on Bid Night... this is one of the upper classmen (jr or sr) and she's there to guide them. [I actually got 2 this year.. YAY]. Then we have 3 weeks... and the new girls get a :
- Carnation Sis
- Lyre Sis
- Panda Pal
Then from those three they choose their big sis (well the big's also choose ths littles)... then you have big sis/ grand big/ great grand big .. etc etc.


Depends, in some fraternities they do, some they dont. One fraternity at school has their big brothers choose a girl to be the guys big sis. And those girls are ALL considered Sweethearts (and don't have to be greek).
Then, there's another fraternity at school (that I'm a little sis for) where the Fall pledge class gets big sis's. Those girls are already little sisters for the fraternity, and y'all pick each other. Then in the spring these girls get Big Brothers (from upper classmen who choose them.. girls don't get to pick).

So I have a big family thus far:
Big sis - june
Lil sis - Lindsey
Grand Lil - Amanda
2 mystogogues (not really in the family) - Anna & Ashley

Lil bro - Stephen
Big Bro - Nick
(and I might get another lil bro cause this new pledge class is bigger than the new little sisters coming in)

- hope that helped in someway... but I guess i talk just to hear myself talk (or rather type)

At my school, frat boys all have "pledge moms," chosen by their big bros. I actually have three pledge sons, and pretty much, you take them out and get them drunk, and give them something (shorts, hat, etc.) with your letters on it.

Sig-Mom? hehe
 

That's really interesting about the Sigma Kappa chapters because I have never heard of a Sig-Mom or Violet Sis. At Purdue (Beta Sigma), new members get Heart Moms during their pledgeship and then during their I-Week, they get a Big Sis.

For the record, I have one heart daughter and 2 Littles! :)

We just call them big and lil sis. People are really into their families here (grandbaby, grandma etc.) Each family has a set of letters that is passed down. If a older person in the sorority terminates its up to the family if they want to choose new letters. The t-shirt i got was getting kind of old and didnt fit - so i just made it into a pillow and started a running tab on the back of the fam. The new girls get their big sisters a few weeks into the new member program. Thus, the week before initiation they get a 'guardian angel' that leaves them little gifts every night. this person is revealed at initiation. the VP is in charge of the new member process and they are dubbed the pledge mom. we have sailboat buddies for the actives that change every semester and that is almost like a secret santa.

My chapter of ADPi has violet sisters that all take us out. From those we "pref" which one we want as our Diamond Sister, then the New Member Coordinator puts us together with our Diamond Sister. Lots of the girls in our chapter actually use the term Diamond Sister and Diamond Family, but my friends and I usually just say Big and Little. :)

Lindsey
Texas A&M University