# Any rhyme or reason to fraternity/ sorority names **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 4, 2007, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-rhyme-or-reason-to-fraternity-sorority-names/428855 "2007-12-04T23:24:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-rhyme-or-reason-to-fraternity-sorority-names/428855/1 "2007-12-04T23:24:26Z")
DG, DTD, etc… Are the letters significant in any way? Some kind of heraldry? How does a new organization decide what to call itself? ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-rhyme-or-reason-to-fraternity-sorority-names/428855/2 "2007-12-04T23:40:39Z")
Based on my knowledge about my fraternity, and my understanding about others, the greek letter names of many fraternities stand for the secret greek names or mottos of the organizations. Because most fraternities have secret rituals, and often the secret name is their most cherished secret, it is unlikely that one can find the meaning behind the greek names. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-rhyme-or-reason-to-fraternity-sorority-names/428855/3 "2007-12-05T01:23:36Z")
[QUOTE=Billdo] Based on my knowledge about my fraternity, and my understanding about others, the greek letter names of many fraternities stand for the secret greek names or mottos of the organizations. Because most fraternities have secret rituals, and often the secret name is their most cherished secret, it is unlikely that one can find the meaning behind the greek names. [/QUOTE] In a few minutes on the Web, I can find out the deepest secrets behind Scientology, the Masons, and how to make nuclear bomb. Somehow I doubt that the “secret” meanings of a few Greek letters that have been known to thousands of drunk undergrads have remained entirely unknown to the outside world. For instance, according to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraternities_and_sororities), “Phi, Beta, and Kappa were the initials of a secret Greek motto, _Philosophia Biou Kybernētēs_, or Love of learning [is] the guide of life.” I haven’t the time or inclination to look further, but I suspect few are very secret any more. ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-rhyme-or-reason-to-fraternity-sorority-names/428855/4 "2007-12-05T03:34:37Z")
The math club at my high school had the EXTREMELY secret and hard to decipher name of **M** u **A** lpha **Th** eta. You do the math. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![hawksgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ed655f/32.png) [@hawksgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawksgirl)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-rhyme-or-reason-to-fraternity-sorority-names/428855/5 "2007-12-05T03:58:25Z")
I rushed a sorority called Sigma Alpha, for Sisters in Agriculture. It was a professional ag. interest sorority. The ag fraternity was Alpha Gamma Rho (AGRiculture). So, some of them do. ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-rhyme-or-reason-to-fraternity-sorority-names/428855/6 "2007-12-05T04:11:25Z")
[QUOTE=commasense] For instance, according to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraternities_and_sororities), “Phi, Beta, and Kappa were the initials of a secret Greek motto, _Philosophia Biou Kybernētēs_, or Love of learning [is] the guide of life.” I haven’t the time or inclination to look further, but I suspect few are very secret any more. [/QUOTE] Phi Beta Kappa, widely recognized as the first American college fraternity, was at one point a secret society, but has since become open, as well as changing in practice from a fraternal organization to an honor society. I have no idea whether the fraternal secrets of other organizations are on the internet, and I would be highly disinclined to look out of respect for their organizational privacy and in the hope of mutual respect for mine. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-rhyme-or-reason-to-fraternity-sorority-names/428855/7 "2007-12-05T07:40:42Z")
[QUOTE=Billdo] I have no idea whether the fraternal secrets of other organizations are on the internet, and I would be highly disinclined to look out of respect for their organizational privacy and in the hope of mutual respect for mine. [/QUOTE] I did a search for my fraternity’s “handshake”, as it were (we don’t call it that,) as well as for some other things considered privy only to those initiated, and I found nothing about them at all. Make of that what you will. ---
**Author:** ![Shecky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Shecky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shecky)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-rhyme-or-reason-to-fraternity-sorority-names/428855/8 "2007-12-05T12:57:26Z")
**K** appa **I** ota Phi: the unofficial name of Kiwanis’ sponsored youth program in college. It was KI and worldwide. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-rhyme-or-reason-to-fraternity-sorority-names/428855/9 "2007-12-05T20:54:15Z")
But does anyone know the cryptic meanings behind I Phelta Thi, or Tappa Kegga Bru? Or are we doomed to be forever speculating? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-rhyme-or-reason-to-fraternity-sorority-names/428855/10 "2007-12-05T21:41:59Z")
The college fraternity ΘΧ (Theta Chi) gets its name from its Greek motto, θηρόποσα Χείρ, or _the assisting hand_. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-rhyme-or-reason-to-fraternity-sorority-names/428855/11 "2007-12-05T21:45:43Z")
[QUOTE=Walloon] The college fraternity ΘΧ (Theta Chi) gets its name from its Greek motto, θηρόποσα Χείρ, or _the assisting hand_. [/QUOTE] We called them the “ox house” even though the letters are wrong; it _looks_ like OX. The letters of my fraternity stood for our motto. That’s all I’m at liberty to say 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-rhyme-or-reason-to-fraternity-sorority-names/428855/12 "2007-12-05T23:28:50Z")
The two that I am familiar with (third-hand through the drunken undergraduate disclosures of others) are surprisingly religious (Christian) in meaning. One strikes me as eye-rollingly presumptuous. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-rhyme-or-reason-to-fraternity-sorority-names/428855/13 "2007-12-05T23:48:40Z")
Somebody get **Skammer** a couple of beers! 😃