Your letters scambled?
 

What sort of issues has your fraternity or sorority had with groups that had the same letters as you, just in a different order? For example, has Delta Tau Delta had issues with a Delta Delta Tau or Alpha Chi Omega with a Chi Alpha Omega (which actually exists).

For Alpha Phi Omega, there is a group called Omega Phi Alpha, but it is a small national sorority that was founded with help of Alpha Phi Omega long before Alpha Phi Omega went co-ed. I've also found APO chapters that deliberately formed as Phi Alpha Omega or another scramble to show stability before applying for an APO charter. (Beta Sigma Alpha was another common one).

Right now there is a Phi Alpha Omega Honorary at American University of the Caribbean (medical school), but there is no conflict as far as I know).

I don't understand.

Why would there be an issue unless the letters were "scrambled" with the intent to form a copycat national GLO?

Other than my Nonna sending me a bouquet congratulating me on joining Kappa Sigma, I don't think there ARE any real issues. I mean, I'm with DrPhil here, what issues do you mean?

Groups with similar, but not "Scrambled" letters on campus differentiated themselves just fine, we all knew who was SAE and who was SigEp for example.

It's not really a huge issue - but some people on my campus refer to Phi Sigma Pi as "Phi Pi," so when they hear girls talking about "Pi Phi" they get really confused!

There was actually a girl who did spring recruitment at the same time as me last year who was convinced that Pi Beta Phi was the honor society instead of Phi Sigma Pi. When she was told that it wasn't, she was kind of like "..but.. you're a REGULAR sorority? Then why are you all so chill?" and left.

So yeah, no real conflicts, but lots of confusion.

But, that's Phi Sigma Pi and Pi Beta Phi, right?

No issues here, no matter which way you put our letters. :p

Yup. It's really only an issue among people who insist on shortening the names to Phi Pi and Pi Phi and getting them mixed up. The full names are much more difficult to scramble and confuse.

I don't know of any campuses where there is both Alpha Delta Pi and Alpha Delta Phi, but I can imagine that would cause problems


I have heard of people confuse Alpha Epsilon Pi and Alpha Epsilon Phi.

Don't start me.

Whoops, too late. :p

Long story short, AEPi has been on my campus for decades. In the early 1990s, a group of Jewish women wanted to bring AEPhi to campus. The local Panhel said no, but invited them to form a local sorority - which they did, and which I pledged. During my sophomore year, Panhel granted our request to become a colony of AEPhi. The national was still interested, and a match was made.

I can't begin to tell you how many times I was asked when AEPi had gone coed, or if AEPhi was a "little sister" group for AEPi. Nope - although both groups are historically Jewish, and have similar badges, we are completely different GLOs, thankyouverymuch.

Now I get it. :)

honestly, doesn't there come a point when letters are going to start being repeated in similar pairing? I have noticed that there are certain letters that just aren't used; I seldom see H, I, or P with GLO.

And don't we all pride ourselves on what our letters mean and represent, not the letters we put on our shirts?

@Honeychile, Ariz. State University has a well established ADPi chapter, and there recently appears to be an interest group forming for ADPhi.

Never seen an issue with scrambling of letters, but I have heard of confusion in the names for two- and three-letter orgs where the first two letters are the same,e.g., Phi Mu and Phi Mu Alpha. Yes, I've heard some people who don't know better refer to us as Phi Mu.

The only one that is similar to kd (other than kappa delta pi) is a small local at a small school outside of Portland. It is Aloha Kappa Delta. It has a white rose for a flower as do we and it's colors are pearl white, olive green (ditto) and royal purple. It's philanthropy is listed as children, which three out of the four KD philanthropies focus on. Is there a mix up? No, but I'm willing to bet a founder or two of AKD was interested or looked at KD when they were founding it.

Also AKD is apparently a national sociology society. Not at the location I am looking, but at other universities.

Have you ever been confused for Phi Mu Delta? Just curious.

Heh, it would be hard for someone to scramble Delta Delta Delta. ;)

Not in my experience. The confusion with Phi Mu comes when people try to shorten our name (a la "Lambda Chi") by dropping the Alpha.

There's also the nickname part: Kappas to NPC people are Kappa Kappa Gamma; to historically black fraternities, Kappa Alpha Psi. (I think!)


I think a better word than scramble is confused.

Or Sigma Sigma Sigma and Phi Beta Sigma. My favorite though is when I initiated into Tri Sigma and my friend in Phi Beta Sigma was like "we're both Sigmas now!" It was cute. :)

Correct. Most people can tell by the conversation which Kappa is being referenced so I doubt there is much confusion.

When I was in college, people would say "KKG" or "KappaKappaGamma" (very quickly) and never said "Kappa" in reference to Kappa Kappa Gamma. And we didn't even have a Kappa Alpha Psi chapter on the campus.

When I hear "Kappa" I think Kappa Alpha Psi and the people I talk to (in real life) are always talking about Kappa Alpha Psi when they say "Kappa."

I doubt there is any confusion there. It's all about the context. LOL.

Sigma means Phi Beta Sigma to everyone (in real life) I talk about Greekdom with.

There is also Phi Kappa Psi. One of my brothers was a Phi Psi. Between Pi Phi and Phi Psi, I'm surprized my non-Greek mother managed.

One of my sisters accidentally bought a Kappa Sigma window cling for her little. In her defense, they are inside application, so they are printed backwards.

There has been some confusion on my campus over the two that happen to share the first two letters, SAE and SAI. Though SAI is never officially given a hall (there are no houses for sororities), we tend to block together when possible and display our letters outside our door. That happened pretty strongly this year. Our neighbor hall? SAE.

It'd be even more confusing if you had Sigma Alpha on your campus, the agricultural interest sorority.

I'm sorry, this made me lol. My school has chapters of both Kappa Sigma and Sigma Kappa. More than once, a PNM, asked where she's preffing, has said, "Alpha Phi and Kappa Sigma." hee hee

There was a thread on this a while back, about GLOs with similar letters and the confusion that often resulted. Kappa Sigma and Sigma Kappa; Alpha Epsilon Phi and Alpha Epsilon Pi; Phi Sigma Kappa, Phi Kappa Sigma, Phi Kappa Theta; Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Phi Epsilon; Theta Chi and Theta Xi - all these GLOs have or have had chapters at my school, and confusion did occur.

You'd be surprised; scrambling can happen in many more ways than just the letters themselves.

For someone inexperienced with Greek Letters, it's just "Triangles"

As for my own fraternity, Triangle, I have been asked by several non-Greeks if I was a "Tri-Delt" when I wear my "letter." It's basically a T inscribed inside a Delta (kind of looks like /T\). It gets very annoying.

At UCal Berkeley, there's an Alpha Delta Pi and an Alpha Delta Phi, as well as an Alpha Delta Chi. Haha, talk about confusion. I stayed at the Alpha Delta Phi chapter house for a few days over spring break last year and we certainly got people knocking on the door asking for Alpha Delta Pi.

Cal student here. The reality of the situation is that we just have a local nickname for Alpha Delta Phi: AquaDelt. That's because their chapter house is the only one on campus with a swimming pool.