Bad choices for Fraternity/Sorority names
 

I can't find the thread (from years ago) in regards to bad choices for Fraternity/Sorority names such as
*Spells out a word in English (Beta Alpha Tau)
*Known from a movie (Delta Tau Chi, Gamma Phi Gamma)
*etc.

but I found a new one:
*Spells out a word in Greek.

In a discussion on wikipedia categories about Fraternities, someone mentioned how using "fraternities (greek-life)" was confusing to friends of theirs who were actually from Greece (something we deal with occasionally here), they ended the comment with ΩΠΑ! which is sort of equivalent of Hey! or Whoa! Sure enough, there was a fraternity that was ΩΠΑ prior to WWI...

Well, Tri Kappa is certainly unfortunate...

The Dartmouth fraternity of Tri Kap was founded in 1842, before the Klan started in 1865 (though that would be difficult to list on a resume). But the sorority of Tri Kappa in Indiana was founded in 1901, so I don’t get that.

I do. Even now, there are Indiana folks who are VERY proud of their Klan affiliation. I can't imagine it would have been much different in 1901.

(Yes, I'm a Hoosier. No, I didn't go to IU.)

There are generally viewed as being three eras for the Klan, the first from founding in the 1870s to the 1890s, the second sparked by the movie Birth of a Nation in the 1920s and the third from the Civil Rights era until today. 1901 would have been a relative nadir for the Klan, so I'll take them at their word. They certainly don't seem oriented that way today.

huh? what? Please clarify the bolded. Thanks.

I don't know what your sources are for "Klan era". Hopefully not Wikipedia.

Not sure there's ever been a nadir for the KKK. Going underground =/= nadir.

They equals Tri-Kappa.

The sources for the Wikipedia article. The Wikipedia article on the Klan is particularly well sourced to Academic works.

If the Klan has more support they are more able to operate above ground.

Yeah, I knew Dartmouth was pre-KKK, but Indiana was not. It’s really beyond me that they’ve kept the name regardless of the intent of the org.

Remember the girl on here who started her own sorority and called it ODB? Like Ol Dirty Bastard (google if you're too young to remember!)

For the record, the Indiana Tri-Kappa history page includes the following statement:

"NOTE: There has always been some discussion concerning the relationship between our organization and another well-known organization that has the same initials. Our Council would like to assure the public that we are in no way associated with any other group that coincidentally happens to share our initials. Our purpose has been and remains charity and kindness."

There's a local sorority in my university town called Omega Phi Sigma, and collegians jokingly refer to them as 'Oops'.

I get that, but if you named your org Νu Alpha Zeta Iota, you still might want to reconsider. Just saying.

That’s a good one!

I love Oozma Kappa from Monsters U

SKEPi is still my favorite. :p

I've always thought it unfortunate that Ouachita Baptist University has a Christian sorority called Tri Chi. Needless to say, the ladies of the chapter use the name rather than the letters.