List of Lambda Chi Alpha Chapters - Naming

Naming

Lambda Chi Alpha chapters are known as subordinate Zetas, or simply Zetas. Thus, the Alpha chapter at Boston is referred to as Alpha Zeta. Zetas are identified by Greek letters in a unique "scrambled alphabet" naming scheme.

At the fraternity's inception, founder Warren A. Cole assigned Greek letters to petitioning groups that had not yet been chartered. Predictably, not all of these groups were chartered. As a result, the first seven chapters were designated Α, Γ, Ε, Ζ, Ι, Λ, and Β, in that order. John E. Mason created a twenty-four word mnemonic device with words representing each Greek letter once— the first seven words were in the order that the chapters were already named.

A good energetic Zeta is Lambda's boast; ‘Strength from Delta Pi’, our motto, to each through union; excellent character only, knowing no retreating steps.

Therefore, the chapters are named in the order: Α, Γ, Ε, Ζ, Ι, Λ, Β, Σ, Φ, Δ, Π, Ο, Μ, Τ, Η, Θ, Υ, Ξ, Χ, Ω, Κ, Ν, Ρ, Ψ. After the twenty-fourth chapter, the sequence was continued with a prefix and hyphen (Α-Α, Α-Γ, Α-Ε, ... Γ-Α, Γ-Γ, Γ-Ε, ... Ε-A, etc.)

When Theta Kappa Nu merged with Lambda Chi Alpha in 1939, former Theta Kappa Nu chapters were assigned chapter designations prefixed with Θ, Κ, or Ν. The second letter of their chapter name was assigned in the order mentioned above and applied to the chapters in order of their precedence in Theta Kappa Nu; e.g., Theta Kappa Nu's Alpha chapter at Howard College(now Samford University) became Theta Alpha Zeta. On twenty-one campuses, chapters of both Lambda Chi Alpha and Theta Kappa Nu existed. In those cases, the chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha kept its original designation, and the letter which would have been assigned to the chapter of Theta Kappa Nu was permanently retired. A singular exception, the chapter at Georgia Tech, Βeta-Κappa Zeta, was named in recognition of its existence as a chapter of the national fraternity Beta Kappa, whose other existing chapters merged with Theta Chi in 1942.