The name ''Indonesia'' derives from Greek words of  () and  (), meaning "Indian islands". The name dates to the 18th century, far predating the formation of independent Indonesia. In 1850, George Windsor Earl, an English ethnologist, proposed the terms ''Indunesians''—and, his preference, ''Malayunesians''—for the inhabitants of the "Indian Archipelago or Malay Archipelago". In the same publication, one of his students, James Richardson Logan, used ''Indonesia'' as a synonym for ''Indian Archipelago''. However, Dutch academics writing in East Indies publications were reluctant to use ''Indonesia''; they preferred ''Malay Archipelago'' (); the ''Netherlands East Indies'' (), popularly ; ''the East'' (); and .