Chapter Designations
 

Over the years, I've noticed that most GLOs seem to have some sort of pattern in naming a new chapter; sometimes by Greek Alphabet, sometimes by State & Greek Alphabet, etc.

How does your GLO designate each chapter?

Alpha Delta Pi: Greek Alphabet: Alpha through Omega, then Alpha Alpha through Alpha Omega, then Beta Alpha through Beta Omega, and so on. The sole exception is Omega Alpha, which is for Alumnae Initiates.

SAE chapters are designated by state and greek initial(s). The first chapter was Alabama Mu, with mu chosen to represent our 'mother' chapter. The next several followed in order of the Greek alphabet (Tennessee Nu, North Carolina Xi, etc.).

Some chapter designations were taken from the original local society to receive the charter (eg. New York Sigma-Phi at Bard College), or chosen to represent the institution (eg. Massachusetts Iota-Tau at M.I.T.).

Eventually the current system was developed whereby the first chapter chartered in a given state is [State] Alpha, then [State] Beta, and eventually [State] Alpha-Alpha, etc.

Each individual chapter is referred to as a Chapter Collegiate. Upon graduation, alumni in good standing are designated as members of the Chapter Alumnus, those not in good standing as members of the Chapter Quiescent, and deceased Brothers as members of the Chapter Eternal.

I know there is an old, old thread about this, but I am not good at the search function. :)

AOII does not use any order. We allow our colonies to select their own designation. The designation must also then stand for the chapter sub-motto. My chapter at the University of Illinois wanted to use Iota for Illinois, so they chose the sub-motto iso fore which is Greek for sharing equal burdens. Some use an English sub-motto, for example Alpha Gamma's is "always genuine" and Tau Delta's is "true to duty."

Most of our oldest chapters are our single-lettered ones, but those are not in order, and actually some of our oldest 24 chose double-letter designations, and the single letter "Mu" was never used to name a chapter. So in order of founding, our oldest chapters are:

Alpha (Barnard/Columbia)
Pi (Sophie Newcomb/Tulane)
Nu (NYU)
Omicron (Tennessee)
Kappa (Randolph-Macon Women's College)
Zeta (Nebraska)
Sigma (Cal-Berkeley)
Theta (DePauw)
Beta (Brown)
Delta (Tufts)
Gamma (Maine)
Epsilon (Cornell)
Rho (Northwestern)
Lambda (Stanford)
Iota (Illinois)
Tau (Minnesota)
Chi (Syracuse)
Upsilon (Washington)
Nu Kappa (Southern Methodist)
Beta Phi (Indiana)
Eta (Wisonsin)
Alpha Phi (Montana State)
Nu Omicron (Vanderbilt)
Psi (Penn)
Phi (Kansas)
Omega (Miami Ohio)
Omicron Pi (Michigan)
Alpha Sigma (Oregon)
Xi (Oklahoma)

AOII's naming is very interesting!

Kappa is alphabetical also, though it did not have an Alpha Alpha, Alpha Beta, Alpha Gamma series. The order goes straight from single letters double letters beginning with Beta.

I should probably dig out my history book to find out why!

Alpha Gam's naming convention is a little complicated. The first 24 chapters were in order of installation. I'm pasting the rest from a post by greeklawgirl from a couple years ago:

At the 1909 convention, Grand Council decided to create four provinces: Alpha in the Northeast, Gamma in the Southeast, Beta in the Midwest, and Delta in the West. Sometime after 1909 but before 1922, Epsilon Province was created to govern the lower Midwest.

After Omega chapter was chartered in 1922, all chapters thereafter were named by the province that they were in, NOT in Greek alphabetical order. For instance:

While Alpha Zeta chapter was founded in 1930, Delta Alpha chapter was founded in 1923. Epsilon Alpha was founded in 1922.

** Back to me now: So, all chapters in the Northeast begin with Alpha. When they got to Alpha Omega, they went to Zeta's. So Northeast chapters are Alpha, Zeta, Lambda,

Midwest: Beta, Eta, Mu

South: Gamma, Theta, Nu

West: Delta, Iota, Xi

Lower Midwest: Epsilon, Kappa, Omicron

Of course, we haven't reached all of those yet, but that is how they are figured out. Our newest chapter is Theta Chi at Virginia Tech.

Trying to keep them straight can be tough sometimes. When my duties were extended to include oversight of the whole northeast, I got Zeta Eta, Zeta Theta, Zeta Beta.. trying to keep them straight took a while.

There's only one chapter whose name starts with "Alpha." That's the Alpha Chapter (VMI). Also, no chapter uses the "Omega" letter.

We go through the greek alphabet, then on to the double letters starting with Beta Alpha going to Beta Psi, then to Gamma Alpha, etc.

I wish we did ours like the fiji's do it..

they use the greek letters to write the name (sorry that was confusing

For example, Univ of Oklahoma, in Norman is:
Nu Omicron (Norman Oklahoma)

University of Arkansas in Fayetteville is:
Phi Alpha (Fayetteville, Arkansas)

I thought it was kind of clever.

Some Fiji chapters designations are derived from the university's initials.

University of Kentucky = Upsilon Kappa
Texas A&M University = Alpha Mu

I love Pi Phi's system because it's easier to keep locations straight!

First chapter in Alabama, Alabama Alpha
Second-Alabama Beta
Third-Alabama Gamma, yea us!:D

Etc.

LXA early on was a funny way to start.
Alpha of course is Boston Un. but, the first actual chapter was Gamma, Un. Mass. (Mass. Agricultural College)

When letters were sent to schools, they were given a designation even if they did not accept the invitation.

After that Alpha designations came into being as chapters were insituted.

In the 1939 merger of TKN into LXA their chapters were given designations that started with Theta, Kappa, and Nu. TKN used State and Letter designation.

Colonys used be given Letter designations and are now give numbers until chartering.

Alpha Epsilon Phi designates chapters using Greek letters as follows:

Alpha through Omega
Alpha Alpha through Alpha Omega
Epsilon Alpha through Epsilon Omega (there is no Epsilon Upsilon)
Phi Alpha through Phi Omega
Beta Alpha etc.

TKE just uses the normal designations, Alpha thru Omega, then Alpha-Alpha, and so on...the only exception to the rule is our Sigma chapter is called Scorpion chapter because the chapter at Cornell was known as the Scorpions before they affiliated with TKE. There was some kind of special concession made, apparently.

Also, for some reason the Eta series is skipped completely. It goes from Zeta-Omega straight to Theta-Alpha.

Sigma Kappa uses the "standard" naming except there are no Eta ____ or Iota ____ chapters. My guess on the Eta is that there are too many er.."puns" that can be made with that designation... (who wants to be Eta Pi chapter after all...)

No odd chapter designations that I'm aware of except that our Alpha, Beta, and Gamma were all at the same school, then got folded into each other and then closed when Colby College banned Greek Life.

Why did Colby close out Greeks there?

We had a chapter back when.