[DeltaBetaBaby]

Okay, I have a theory:

The word "pledge" was eliminated around the time I joined, like, late 90's - early 00's. It seems like some groups came up with official replacement words: phis, pearls, alphas, while others just expected "new member" to be sufficient. Nobody likes using "new member", so instead, chapters locally made up their own, usually as some version of "baby [insert mascot here].

So, my conclusion is that if orgs don't want their new members referred to as "baby X", they need to come up with something else to make part of the chapter lexicon.

ETA: This is easier for some groups than for others, but Alpha Phi could certainly use "lilies" to refer to their NM's. That's kinda cute.