After the emergence of major theological disputes and divisions (4th-7th century), regional distinction between eastern and western branches of Syriac Christianity gained additional significance. Majority of eastern Syriac Christians adhered to the Church of the East, while majority of those in the western regions adhered to the Syriac Orthodox Church. In the same tame, Aramaic-speaking Christian communities in some regions (like Byzantine Palestine) opted for the Chalcedonian Christianity. All of those divisions created a basis for the emergence of several denominational terms, created as endonymic (native) or exonymic (foreign) designations for distinctive Christian communities. Main of those terms were, in alphabetical order: "Jacobites", "Maronites", "Melkites", and "Nestorians". All of those terms are denominational, without ethnic connotations.