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It is believed that the term ''Chaldean Catholic'' arose due to a Catholic [[Latin language|Latin]] misinterpretation and misreading are noted in the Holy Bible of the [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] ''Ur Kasdim'' (according to long held Jewish tradition, the birthplace of Abraham in ''Northern MesopotamiaChaldea'') as meaning ''Ur of the Chaldees''.<ref>Biblical Archaeology Review May/June 2001: Where Was Abraham's Ur? by Allan R. Millard</ref> The Hebrew ''Kasdim'' does not in fact mean or refer to the ''Chaldeans'', and Ur Kasdim is generally believed by many to have been somewhere in [[Assyria]], north eastern [[Syria]] or south eastern [[Anatolia]].

The 18th century [[Roman Catholic Church]] then applied this misinterpreted name to their new diocese in northern Mesopotamia, a region whose indigenous inhabitants had always previously been referred to ethnically as ''Assurayu'', ''Assyrians'', ''Assouri'', ''Ashuriyun'', ''East Syrian'', ''Athurai'', ''Atoreh'' etc., and by the denominational terms ''Syriac Christians'', ''Jacobites'' and ''Nestorians''. Thus the term ''Chaldean Catholic'' is historically, usually and properly taken purely as a [[denominational]], [[doctrinal]] and [[theological]] term which only arose in the late 17th century AD, and not as an [[ethnic]] identity or designation.<ref>a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Travis, Hannibal. Genocide in the Middle East: The Ottoman Empire, Iraq, and Sudan. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2010, 2007, pp. 237-77, 293–294</ref><ref name="conference.osu.eu">http://conference.osu.eu/globalization/publ/08-bohac.pdf</ref><ref name="conference.osu.eu"/> The modern Chaldean Catholics are in fact native [[Assyrian Chaldean people|AssyriansChaldeans]]of Mesopotamia <ref>Nisan, M. 2002. Minorities in the Middle East: A History of Struggle for Self Expression .Jefferson: McFarland & Company. Jump up ^ http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14225.html</ref> and originated from ancient Chaldean communities living in and indigenous to the north of Iraq/Mesopotamia which was known as Chaldea from the 25th 53rd century BC until the 7th century AD, rather than the long extinct [[Chaldea]]ns/[[Chaldees]], who till today as Chaldeans continue to survive in actuality were 9th century BC migrants from [[The Levant]], and always resided in the far south east of Mesopotamia, adisappeared from history circa 550 BC. However, despite this, a minority of Chaldean Catholics (particularly in the [[United States]]) have in recent times confused a purely religious term with an ethnic identity, and espoused a separate ethnic identity to their Chaldean brethren, despite there being absolutely no historical, academic, cultural, geographic, archaeological, linguistic or genetic evidence supporting a link to either the Chaldean land or the Chaldean race. [[Raphael Bidawid]], the then patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church commented on the [[Assyrian name dispute]] in 2003 and clearly differentiated between the name of a church and an ethnicity: : “''I personally think that these different names serve to add confusion. The original name of our Church was the ‘Church of the East’ … When a portion of the Church of the East became Catholic in the 17th Century, the name given was ‘Chaldean’ based on the Magi kings who were believed by some to have come from what once had been the land of the Chaldean, to Bethlehem. The name ‘Chaldean’ does not represent an ethnicity, just a church… We have to separate what is ethnicity and what is religion… I myself, my sect is Chaldean, but ethnically, I am [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]].''”<ref name="Parpola">{{cite journal | author = Parpola, Simo | year = 2004 | title = National and Ethnic Identity in the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Assyrian Identity in Post-Empire Times | journal = [[Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies]] | volume = 18 | issue = 2 | pages = pp. 22 | publisher = JAAS | url = http://www.jaas.org/edocs/v18n2/Parpola-identity_Article%20-Final.pdf | format = PDF | authorlink = Simo Parpola }}</ref> In an interview with the Chaldean Star in the September–October 1974 issue, he was quoted as saying:: “''Before I became a priest I was an Assyrian, before I became a bishop I was an Assyrian, I am an Assyrian today, tomorrow, forever, and I am proud of it''.''”<ref>Mar Raphael J Bidawid. The Assyrian Star. September–October, 1974:5.</ref>