The first recorded name the Greeks used for the Anatolian peninsula, though not particularly popular at the time, was Ἀσία ("Asía"), perhaps from an Akkadian expression for the "sunrise", or possibly echoing the name of the Assuwa league in western Anatolia. The Romans used it as the name of their province, comprising the west of the peninsula plus the nearby Aegean Islands. As the name "Asia" broadened its scope to apply to the vaster region east of the Mediterranean, some Greeks in Late Antiquity came to use the name Asia Minor (Μικρὰ Ἀσία, "Mikrà Asía"), meaning "Lesser Asia", to refer to present-day Anatolia, whereas the administration of the Empire preferred the description Ἀνατολή ("Anatolḗ" "the East").