Why those letters? (public/private)

[MysticCat]

From Alpha Chi Omega's website:

Alpha Chi Omega's Founders chose "Alpha," the first letter of the Greek alphabet, because they were forming the first fraternity in the school of music. Since they thought they might also be founding the last such fraternity, "Omega" seemed appropriate. "Kai," meaning "and," was added to form the beginning and the end. "Kai" was soon changed to "Chi," a letter of the Greek alphabet.

Also, you give Phi Beta Kappa as an example, but the meaning of those letters was secret at first.

Of course, many groups have an open (public) meaning and a closed (secret) meaning for their letters.

I do know of one GLO that used to state publically what the meaning of its name/letters was -- it could be found in some of their publications and even in at least one edition of Baird's. But for quite a long time now, that group has not published that information anywhere -- it seems to now be considered secret. So I ain't telling which group it is.

[naraht]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

From Alpha Chi Omega's website [...]

Also, you give Phi Beta Kappa as an example, but the meaning of those letters was secret at first.

Thank you for the Alpha Chi Omega information. Also, I'd forgotten that Phi Beta Kappa's was originally private. To be clear I'm talking about today, but the information that it used to be private is good to have as well.

[naraht]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

So I ain't telling which group it is.

Yeah, wierd what you can find in old copies of Baird's

[DreamfulSpirit]

Omega Phi Alpha's letters were chosen because of our National History being started by the Zeta Kappa Chapter of Alpha Phi Omega at Bowling Green State University. The Zeta Kappa chapter of APO was looking to create another organization to help them with service projects, and a lot of women were interested in being apart of it. So they created a service sorority and chose a similar name: Omega Phi Alpha.

You can read it as a part of our National History here on OPA's national website:
http://omegaphialpha.org/visitors/ab...tional-history