two groups with the same name

[summerlily]

**mods, if you feel this is in the wrong place, please repost it**

Hi Everyone,
I'm new here...just a question for you all:
I am starting a new organization on my campus for a small demographic of women who are non-trads and specifically who are married/mothers. We all would have loved to join a sorority, but we go to a very small school and there are only a couple of sororities - and they are very party-oriented (which, for obvious reasons, we cannot be - even though we are in the same age group, etc). We would like the sisterhood aspect and the networking side, but our college is not open to new national sorority chapters, etc, so they have asked us to form our own group and have given us permission to use Greek letters. Our problem is that all the ones we have chosen are taken (or scrambled and taken). Would it be offensive for us to use an anagram of a major group's letters? For example, if we wanted to call our group "Sigma Kappa Gamma" (just an example), and it was already taken, would it be a problem to mix it up and use "Gamma Sigma Kappa" or similar? We're so frustrated because it seems all the names we would like have been chosen already. Any creative suggestions? We wanted to include the Greek initials for the beginning sounds of "Compassion, Dedication and Friendship."
I appreciate all your help - it means so much.
- Lily

[minDyG]

Originally Posted by summerlily

We wanted to include the Greek initials for the beginning sounds of "Compassion, Dedication and Friendship."

The only Google result I found for Gamma Delta Phi was some group in the Philippines...I doubt it would be protected by US copyright laws. And I really doubt that scrambling the letters (I'm thinking of Phi Gamma Delta) would offend anyone, especially if you're a sorority and not another fraternity.

[VandalSquirrel]

Originally Posted by summerlily

**mods, if you feel this is in the wrong place, please repost it**

Hi Everyone,
I'm new here...just a question for you all:
I am starting a new organization on my campus for a small demographic of women who are non-trads and specifically who are married/mothers. We all would have loved to join a sorority, but we go to a very small school and there are only a couple of sororities - and they are very party-oriented (which, for obvious reasons, we cannot be - even though we are in the same age group, etc). We would like the sisterhood aspect and the networking side, but our college is not open to new national sorority chapters, etc, so they have asked us to form our own group and have given us permission to use Greek letters. Our problem is that all the ones we have chosen are taken (or scrambled and taken). Would it be offensive for us to use an anagram of a major group's letters? For example, if we wanted to call our group "Sigma Kappa Gamma" (just an example), and it was already taken, would it be a problem to mix it up and use "Gamma Sigma Kappa" or similar? We're so frustrated because it seems all the names we would like have been chosen already. Any creative suggestions? We wanted to include the Greek initials for the beginning sounds of "Compassion, Dedication and Friendship."
I appreciate all your help - it means so much.
- Lily

You could go as Nu Tau Omega (Non Traditional Women) and have Compassion, Dedication, and Friendship as your motto.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by summerlily

We wanted to include the Greek initials for the beginning sounds of "Compassion, Dedication and Friendship."
I appreciate all your help - it means so much.
- Lily

Originally Posted by minDyG

The only Google result I found for Gamma Delta Phi was some group in the Philippines...

The beginning sounds for Compassion, Dedication and Friendship would be Kappa Delta Phi, not Gamma Delta Phi. Kappa Delta Phi is an NIC fraternity -- it's small but still national.

FWIW, per Babelfish, Compassion, Dedication, Friendship in Greek would be Oiktos, Ayierwsh, Filia (Oiktos, Apsierose, Philia), which would give you OAF. There is a local "Greek Club" at Lee University by that name, but that's all I can find.