Nicknames

[33girl]

Originally Posted by nwu43

Oh yeah, I can't believe I forgot about that movie. I guess the reason I thought nicknames were more of an ethnic Greek thing was because on my campus, the IFC frats that my friends in freshman year were in (lodge, pike, and beta) didnt seem to have that tradition. I know.. I know... I shouldn't make generalizations like that. How common then is nicknaming in IFC/NPC orgs?

A lot of the fraternities on my campus did it (basically in the same way as the scene in Animal House). Depending on the group and the person, some were internal, some everyone on campus used. There are Crow brothers I've never called by their real name in my life. Sororities didn't make it a point to give nicknames, but there were definitely girls that had them, and as I said, some were internal and some everyone knew. I think it varies from campus to campus.

[Ch2tf]

Originally Posted by nwu43

That's interesting. So you're more likely to say (for example) to a sister, "hi 23" than "hi [insert line name here]" ? And out of curiosity what do you mean by "position on [your] line" ?

No, I'm more likely to say "Hi Julie" than anything else. And by position on line I mean Ace, Deuce, Tre..., Tail. For example, back when I was first initiated, I took a pic with fellow GCer preciousjeni. Not only because she came to the ceremony, but also because we both happen to be deuces and tails.

[emb021]

Originally Posted by nwu43

Oh yeah, I can't believe I forgot about that movie. I guess the reason I thought nicknames were more of an ethnic Greek thing was because on my campus, the IFC frats that my friends in freshman year were in (lodge, pike, and beta) didnt seem to have that tradition. I know.. I know... I shouldn't make generalizations like that. How common then is nicknaming in IFC/NPC orgs?

Can't speak for IFC/NPC orgs, but nicknames in APO are fairly common. But its up to each chapter, as each chapter may or may not follow various 'common' pledging traditions such as bigs/littles, family trees, pledge lines, pledge class namesakes, etc.

In most chapters that do do it, the nickname is usually worked out by the pledge's big, and revealed after initation. Most chapters have some system to make sure the nickname is ok (pledge must approve it or something). The nickname usually points out some event or characteristic about the Brother that is revealed during pledging.

For those chapters that do letter shirts, the nickname is put on the back of the jersey above the member number.

[BlueNYC2]

Ive never seen someone in the NPHC go by their line name. i dont even like being called by my number. hell i cant stand when ppl who know me call me Blue or Frat...muthafucka, you know my name, so just call me by name. sorry for that slight tangent.

and another thing, in the NPHC, the orgs have nicknames for most of the individual chapters themselves. like Blood & Guts Beta Gamma, Esteemed Epsilon Sigma, Mutilatin' Mu Zeta, Thrillin' Theta Xi, Majestic Mu Delta, Xi Epsilon The House...those are just to name a few for PBS.