Your letters, but scrambled.

[AlphaXi_Husky]

Originally Posted by WVU alpha phi

We also had Pi Kappa Phi "Pi Kapp" and Pi Kappa Alpha "Pike". I forgot Kappa Sigma and Sigma Kappa, both are on my campus but no one ever had a problem differentiating.

My alma mater has Pi Kappa Phi (Pi Kapp's), Pi Kappa Alpha (Pike's), Phi Kappa Sigma (Phi Sigs - or Phi Pools because they have a pool), Phi Kappa Psi (Phi Psi) and since I've graduated have added Phi Kappa Tau (Phi Tau's) and Phi Kappa Theta (PKT's). I realize they're not all the same, but it's a lot of really similar sounding names - and especially hard to learn when you're a freshman and it all sounds the same

[Psi U MC Vito]

My school has two local sororities. Sigma Psi Kappa and Kappa Psi Epsilon. Sigma Psi Kappa was originally going to be Sigma Psi Epsilon but didn't want to be confused with Kappa Psi Epsilon.

[CougarGrad]

Phi Alpha is a national honor society for social work students.

[aephi alum]

Originally Posted by pshsx1

Oh yeah, and I was out with brothers for breakfast once and, of course, some of us were wearing letters. One of the waitresses comes up and asks, "You guys are SigEps, right? Sigma Alpha Epsilon? My boyfriend is one at Whatever University" And she points at someone's letters.

Also I've been asked is SAE is SPE's rival (Nationally) because our names are similar.

You think that's bad?

I'm a founder of my AEPhi chapter. AEPi had been on campus for decades. I can't tell you how many times I was asked if I was a girlfriend of an AEPi, or if AEPi had gone coed, etc. You would think that at a top-rated engineering school like MIT, they would know that pi and phi are different letters.

[naraht]

Originally Posted by aephi alum

You would think that at a top-rated engineering school like MIT, they would know that pi and phi are different letters.

Just tell them that Pi is the one in the school cheer.

Randy

[wolffootball37]

Delta Sigma Phi and Delta Sigma Pi always got me confused.
We also have Phi Kappa Sigma, Pi Kappa Alpha, Phi Kappa Psi on my campus and were getting Phi Kappa Phi this coming semester. Needless to say it will be confusing.

[pshsx1]

Ah and it was rumored (but very untrue) that a local sorority at my school, Chi Omega Rho, was actually a failed Chi Omega colony.

[LAblondeGPhi]

Ok, not exactly the same, but:

Gamma Phi Beta and Pi Beta Phi


Since the Greek letters "Pi" and "Gamma" look kind of similar, people get confused sometimes.

Example: the first couple of weeks of my pledge quarter, I would look at all the Greek merchandise websites and I'd always get tricked by some Pi Phi letters and look at them.
Also, I had a tote bag in college with my letters on it that I wore everywhere. I worked at one of the grad school offices on campus, and one day was stopped by a woman who asked if I was a Pi Phi because she saw my bag. She WAS a Pi Phi in college and still got confused by the letters.

[pi kapp drew]

Originally Posted by amanda6035

Until GC, I had never heard of Pi Kappa Phi being referred to as Pi Phi - on my campus, they are the Pi Kaps.

Funny story - when I was a baby colony member, we decided to do posters for all the fraternities and the one other sorority on my campus for Valentines Day. I had been greek less than a month (we colonized on 1/15/04)...and honestly, I hadnt learned all the letters yet. I was on the committee to make "AXiD <3 (letters of org)" posters.

Imagine my horror when I got to the school to hang up the posters on the suite doors only to realize I had drawn Phi Kappa Pi. I was mortified....and ran to walmart to get supplies to make a correct poster.

On that same note - it took me forever to learn that a Gamma does not look like a 7.

Thank you. We're only known as Pi Kapps, not Pi Phi. There are no other nicknames.

[XAntoftheSkyX]

There's Delta Chi and Chi Delta (local sorority in the California area?)

[luv n tpa]

Originally Posted by naraht

Theta Phi Alpha(NPC)/Phi Theta Alpha(Honorary History)/Theta Alpha Phi(Honorary Theater)

The history honor society actually is Phi Alpha Theta.

Go figure that I'm Theta Phi Alpha AND Phi Alpha Theta. Just meant to be my letters.

[tld221]

Total lane swerving, but I suppose the positive of having 9 orgs in your council vs 26 sororities, plus (however many are in the NIC/IFC) is there's not much room for confusing names.

You'd have to try really hard to confuse APA and AKA or ZPB and PBS (well maybe the latter on basis of colors).

But the Latino/MCG orgs, lots of room, as I find many of them use Sigma or Lambda in their names.

Random sidenote: when did naming with 2 letters switch over to 3?

[pshsx1]

I don't think there was ever a switchover... I don't think there was ever a trend either...

[Psi U MC Vito]

The only thing I noticed was that alot of the two letter ones are older, but there was no real trend.

[angels&angles]

Originally Posted by tld221

Random sidenote: when did naming with 2 letters switch over to 3?

I might be the other way 'round; most of the sororities who claim to be the "first," or at least the earliest sororities/societies (Pi Phi, Kappa, Theta, ADPi, etc etc) all have three letters, although many of these had names not related to greek letters to begin with (AD Pi = Adelphean Society, Pi Phi = I. C. Sorosis, etc), so I'm not really sure what version of the letters came first. (Was Theta the first sorority with Greek letters? I seem to remember hearing that somewhere, but not really sure.)