Quote:
Originally Posted by Emory Kappa
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!
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To add on to this, the designations of some early chapters that closed after only a few years were then used for chapters that opened in the early 1880s. After the 1890 convention, I believe, it was decided those chapters would have the letter "Beta" preceeding the original chapter name to designate they were the second chapter of that letter (does that make any sense?)
So when the chapter at Iowa opened in 1882 they were originally known as the Zeta chapter, but after 1890, they became the Beta Zeta chapter because they were the second chapter to use the letter Zeta, and that is how they are known today. So there are some two-letter chapters that are actually older than some single letter chapters.