Chapter Names?
 

Something I don't understand because we don't have a chapter that does this (Also stupid question time):

DeltASig uses the sequence of the Greek Alphabet to name chapters (Alpha, Beta, all the way to Alpha Alpha and so forth).

Other IFC and PHC houses uses the State first THEN uses the Sequence (California Epsilon, Florida Delta)

Now, I've seen this thing where a chapter is "Omega Deuteron " or "Xi Pentaton" What exactly is Deuteron or Pentathon, and how does this chapter listing work?

Hi Stan,

It's just another way of denoting chapters after you go through the 24 letters of the greek alphabet. The first 24 chapters would typically be named Alpha through Omega. Then the next 24 would be named Alpha Deuteron through Omega Deuteron, meaning "second Alpha" and "second Omega".

Then after deuteron you have...
Triton
Tetarton
Pentaton
Hexaton
Septaton
etc.

They're just greek words meaning "the second", "the third", etc.

Phi Sigma Kappa is the main group using this convention.

On badges and other documents, this is represented in several ways. Alpha deuteron might sometimes be A', or it might be A with a small delta superscript, or Alpha with a small 2 superscript, or it might be A and then a small delta with a line beneath it.

wptw

We went through the alphabet then started back with Beta Alpha. We use deuteron to denote chapters that have recolinized.

Some fraterities (including mine) omit the last letter 'Omega' or any combination with it from chapter naming. reserving that for deceased members.

Chi Omega goes backwards through the alphabet.
The Omega chapter is reserved for Chi Omegas that have passed away. The founding chapter, at the University of Arkansas, is Psi chapter. Then we go to Alpha Psi and work backwards - Alpha Psi, Alpha Chi, Alpha Phi etc. Then on to Beta, then Gamma and so forth.

So we name backwards and we are (as we discovered on another thread) the only southern founded NPC sorority to have a monogram badge. Guess my founders were some crazy, cooky ladies!!! :D

xo_kathy, you so crazy. :p

ASA changed its way of naming chapters after our reorganization in 1914. The 4 chapters that participated in that are Alpha, Alpha Alpha, Alpha Beta and Alpha Gamma. These are the ONLY four chapters that will ever start with Alpha. After that we did double letters (Beta Beta, Gamma Gamma etc) all thru the alphabet and then went back to Beta Alpha, Beta Gamma, Beta Delta etc. We are up to Theta Beta now, we skipped Eta for whatever reason.

Our Kappa Phi chapter at Mount Union was a recolonization of a pre-reorganization chapter and so they kept their original chapter name.

We used state, then the sequence.

My chapter: New York Eta

There Alpha begins only one chapter in Sigma Nu. The double letters all start with Beta. There also is no Omega. We're the Mu Tau chapter and are the 272nd to be installed.

Well, I thought Kappa's naming system was pretty straightforward. Until I took a good look at my Kappa Notebook's chapter listing, that is. It starts out with single letter naming, in order of the Greek alphabet. But then things start getting really strange. Here's the names of our first few chapters, with their founding date. (Deuterons are used to indicate an active chapter that was once inactive, and I've starred currently inactive chapters.)

Alpha Deuteron 1870
*Beta 1871
*Gamma 1872
Delta 1872
Epsilon 1873
*Zeta 1874
Eta 1875
Iota 1875
Theta 1875
*Beta Gamma 1876
Lambda 1877
Mu 1878
*Nu 1879
Omicron Deuteron 1880
Chi 1880
Pi Deuteron 1880
Rho Deuteron 1880
*Tau 1881
Kappa 1881
Beta Beta 1881
Upsilon 1882
Beta Zeta 1882
*Phi 1882
*Xi 1882
Beta Tau 1883
Psi 1883
Omega 1883
Sigma 1884
Beta Rho Deuteron 1885
Gamma Rho 1888
Beta Nu 1888
*Beta Alpha 1890

After that, the naming system more or less stabilizes into a pretty common pattern, based on the date of founding. I'm at a loss to explain this... perhaps a more knowlegeable Kappa can step in. I'll try to ask some of our advisors, or try some of the resources in our archives. *conspires to get her hands on KKG: A history*

Beta Theta Pi named in order...Alpha to Omega, than Alpha Alpha etc.

My chapter is the Alpha Tau of Beta Theta Pi, but we weren't founded in that order - in those days of the late 1880's, Beta would give the names of inactive chapters to new chapters as a way to conceal chapter death. The original Alpha Tau chapter was William and Mary - When they recolonized several years ago they were given the designation of AT ', like Alpha Tau Prime or something. Upon receiving their charter in August they were given the chapter designation Zeta Upsilon.

Phi Mu Alpha uses a chapter designation system that I haven't seen used by any other GLO. (And I have no idea how we got started using it.)

Like many (most?) other groups, our first 24 chapters have single-letter designations in Greek-alphabetical order, Alpha through Omega. (We do use Omega.) But then things get odd. The next chapter after Omega was Alpha Beta, then Alpha Gamma, Alpha Delta and so on. Once we got to Alpha Omega, we went to Beta Gamma, Beta Delta, Beta Epsilon.... After Beta Omega came Gamma Delta, Gamma Epsilon, and ... well, you see the pattern. Only letters that come (alphabetically) after the first letter of the chapter designation were used for he second letter.

Using this method, we finally got around to only one "Psi ____" chapter: Psi Omega. We then went back to Beta and chartered Beta Alpha, then Gamma Alpha and Gamma Beta, then Delta Alpha, Delta Beta and Delta Gamma, and so on. The result is that the Beta Alpha chapter is significantly younger than the Beta Gamma chapter.

We never use double letter designations (Beta Beta, Gamma Gamma, Delta Delta, etc.) The one exception is Alpha Alpha, which is the designation for honorary members initiated by the national fraternity.

We do not reuse or recycle chapter names, nor do we change chapter names to indicate that they have been inactive and reactivated. With regard to colonies, if a colony is a reactivation of a charter, the colony would be known by the chapter name (i.e., Alpha colony). If the colony is for a completely new chapter, we use the state name and a Greek letter (i.e., Massachusetts Alpha colony), which would, upon chartering, be named according to the regular system.

As for other fraternities, it is interesting to me that the only two GLO's I have ever seen hyphenate chapter names (e.g., Alpha-Beta) are Kappa Sigma and Pi Kappa Alpha, both of which were founded within a few years of each other at the University of Virginia. I wonder if there is a historical connection/reason that they both hyphenate chapter names.

what wptw stated is correct in most cases for our chapters. My chapter is Nu Pentaton meaning we are the 13th chapter in the 5th teir, making us the 65th chapter. Except in the case of former Phi Sigma Epsilon chapters that merged then they are denoted by their old one letter designation with Episilon preceding it so that the Alpha chapter of Phi Sigma Epsilon became Epsilon Alpha chapter of Phi Sigma Kappa

Phi Delta Theta uses the State-Alpha Combo, and has since the beginning I believe. One reason of course is to note the ranking (founding) of chapters within the state, and before we had a structured headquarters and the alpha chapter had temporarily closed the Alpha chapters in each state had the rite and responsibility of granting charters for that particular state.

I think it's interesting that we go through the alphabet and then to Beta Alpha rather than Alpha Alpha or Alpha Beta. The only chapters of Alpha Phi that start with "Alpha" are the Alpha chapter at Syracuse and the Alpha Lambda chapter, which is the chapter for alumnae initiates.

AEPhi did the following:

Alpha through Omega
Alpha Alpha through Alpha Omega
Epsilon Alpha through Epsilon Omega
Phi Alpha through Phi Omega

then we started over with Beta Alpha, and are currently up to Beta Epsilon.

I believe that rechartered chapters get their old chapter designation back, without any "deuteron" or anything.

The differences are so interesting :)