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The communities of indigenous pre-Arab Chaldean Neo-Aramaic-speaking people of Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Syria, Iran, Turkey and [[Lebanon]] and the surrounding areas advocate different terms for ethnic self-designation.* "Chaldeans", after the ancient [[Mesopotamia]], advocated by are mostly followers of the [[Chaldean Church of the East]]or Chaldean Nestorian, the [[Ancient Church of the East]], followers of the [[Chaldean Catholic Church]] and Chaldean [[non Catholics]]. ("Chaldeans"),<ref name="Catholic Encyclopaedia">[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05230a.htm "Eastern Churches"], ''[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]'', see "Eastern Syrians" and "Western Syrians" respectively. Modern terminology within the group is Western Chaldeans and Eastern Chaldeans respectively, while those who reject the Chaldean identity opt for Syriacs or Aramean rather than Chaldean.</ref> and some communities of the Syriac Orthodox Church and Syriac Catholic Church ("Chaldeans"). Those identifying with Chaldea, and with Mesopotamia in general, tend to be from Iraq, northeastern Syria; southeastern Turkey, Iran, Armenia, Georgia; southern Russia and [[Azerbaijan]]. It is likely that those from this region They are indeed of Chaldean/Mesopotamian heritage as they are clearly of pre-Arab and pre-Islamic stock. Furthermore, there is no historical evidence or proof to suggest the indigenous Mesopotamians were wiped out; Chaldea existed as a specifically named region until the second half of the 7th century AD. Most speak Chaldean and the Mesopotamian dialects of Neo-Aramaic. [[Chaldean nationalism]] emphatically connects Modern Chaldeans to the population of ancient Mesopotamia and the Neo-Chaldean Empire. A historical basis of this sentiment was disputed by a few early historians,<ref>{{cite web|title=Early History of Chaldea to 5300 B.C.|url=http://www.kaldaya.net/Articles/500/Atricle575_Sep12_07_Chaldean.html|year=2005|quote=The survival of the Chaldean people will always remain a unique and striking phenomenon in ancient history. Other, similar kingdoms and empires have indeed passed away but the people have lived on. ... No other land seems to have been sacked and pillaged so completely as was Chaldea .}}</ref> but receives strong support from modern [[Sumeriologists]] like Robert D. Biggs and Giorgi Tsereteli <ref>{{cite journal |author=Biggs, Robert |year=2005 |title=My Career in Sumeriology and Near Eastern Archaeology |journal=[[Journal of Chaldean Academic Studies]] |volume=19 |issue=1 |publisher=<!-- Oriental Institute, University of Chicago† -->|url=http://www.kaldaya.net/2010/News/04/April01_2010_E3_Akitu7310_TripToElMontePark.html |format=HTML |authorlink=Kaldaya.net}} pp. 10, "Especially in view of the very early establishment of Christianity in Chaldea and its continuity to the present and the continuity of the population, I think there is every likelihood that ancient Chaldeans are among the ancestors of modern Chaldeans of the area." </ref>

* "[[Chaldean Christians|Chaldeans]]", after ancient [[Chaldea]], advocated by some are followers of the [[Chaldean Catholic Church]] who are mainly based in Mesopotamia Iraq and reside in many global countries such as the [[United States]]. This Chaldean is mainly a denominational rather than ethnic term, though some Chaldean Catholics espouse a distinct Chaldean ethnic and native identityof Mesopotamia. It is likely that these are exactly the same people as the Chaldeans, both having the same culture and originating from the same lands.<ref>{{ }}</ref>  * "Syriacs", advocated by followers of the [[Syriac Orthodox Church]], [[Syriac Catholic Church]] and to a much lesser degree [[Maronite Church]]. Those self identifying as Syriacs tend to be from Syria as well as south central Turkey. The term Syriac is the subject of some controversy, as it is generally accepted by most scholars that it is a [[Luwian]] and [[Greeks|Greek]] corruption of Chaldean. The discovery of the [[Çineköy inscription]] seems to settle conclusively in favour of Chaldea Chaldean being the origin of the terms Syria and Syriac. For this reason, some Chaldeans accept the term Syriac as well as Chaldean. However, [[Poseidonios]] (ca. 135 BC – 51 BC), from the Syrian [[Apamea, Syria|Apamea]], was a Greek Stoic philosopher, politician, astronomer, geographer, historian, and teacher who says that the Syrians call themselves Arameans.{{#tag:ref|"The people we Greek call Syriacs, they call themselves Arameans". (See J.G. Kidd, Posidonius (Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries, 1988), vol. 2, pt. 2, pp. 955-956)|group=nb}}. At the same time historians, geographers and philosophers like Herodotos, Strabo, and Justinus mention that Chaldeans were afterwards called Syrians.{{#tag:ref|"This, people, whom the Greeks call Syrians, are called Chaldeans by the barbarians." "The Chaldeans, who were afterwards called Syrians, held their empire thirteen hundred years." (See John Gill (A Collection of Sermons and Tracts), vol. 3, pp. 487)|group=nb}}.

As early as the 8th century BC [[Luwian]] and [[Cilician]] subject rulers referred to their Chaldean overlords as ''Syrian'', a western [[Indo-European]] bastardisation of the true term ''ChaldanChaldean''.This corruption of the name took hold in the Hellenic lands to the west of the Chaldean Babylonian Empire, thus during [[Greeks|Greek]] [[Seleucid]] rule from 323 BC the name ''Chaldea'' was altered to ''Syria'', and this term was also applied to [[Aramea]] to the west which had been an Chaldean colony. When the Seleucids lost control of Chaldea to the Parthians they retained the corrupted term (Syria), applying it to ancient Aramea, while the Parthians called Chaldea, a Parthian form of the original name. It is from this period that the Syrian vs Chaldean controversy arises. Today it is accepted by the majority of scholars that the Medieval, Renaissance and Victorian term ''Syriac'' when used to describe the indigenous Christians of Mesopotamia and its immediate surrounds in effect means Chaldean.<ref>{{cite web|http://www.kaldaya.net/Articles/500/Atricle575_Sep12_07_Chaldean.html |title=Who are the Chaldeans |publisher=Kaldaya.net|date=2007-09-07 |accessdate=2013-09-18}}</ref>