Selection of Chapter Names

[a.e.B.O.T.]

The list of chapters were rearranged with during the 1847,1848, and 1854 convention to cover over dead chapters. In 1858, they made an attempt to stop this, but it was not always followed. In 1865, they had used all 24 letters, so they decided to double up the letters, calling new chapters 'alpha alpha' or 'beta beta' ... all the way up to 'mu mu.' In 1872, they decided to change that, because the names would just get bigger and bigger. So, they dropped the first letter of the chapters with double letters, and changed them to alpha. So, Howard was Alpha Mu, and this would work for 600 chapters. Then between 1880- 1913 the order of the greek alphabet was disregarded. Instead, the chapters chose names with local significance, like Theta Zeta. However, in 1913, they got back on track and went in a strict alphabetical order.