Chapter Designations

[honeychile]

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.

[KSUViolet06]

Tri Sigma goes in Greek alphabetical order through Psi, then starts over again with Alpha Alpha to Alpha Psi, Beta Alpha to Beta Psi, and so on. Since Omega chapter is reserved to members who pass on, we do not use Omega in our chapter designations.

[SAEalumnus]

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.

[irishpipes]

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)

[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!

[AGDee]

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.

[ISUKappa]

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!

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.

[AOII*Azra-elle]

Originally Posted by irishpipes

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 desgnation 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" amd 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)

This is true. My collegiate chapter was at U. of Northern Colorado. We called ourselves Epsilon Gamma. It stood for Ever Giving, Ever Growing. There is a secret meaning, but only us EG's know what it is!

[aephi alum]

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.

[JonInKC]

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.

[Drolefille]

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.

[Tom Earp]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

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.

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by Tom Earp

Why did Colby close out Greeks there?

We had a chapter back when.

As far as I know the standard "greek life=bad" thing.

Not sure of the details. Just that we lost our Alpha (with Beta and Gamma coming along for the ride)

[irishpipes]

Originally Posted by Tom Earp

Why did Colby close out Greeks there?

We had a chapter back when.

1984

[Buttonz]

SDT does Alpha to Omega