 As a consequence, since the 1850s some Slavic intellectuals from the area adopted the designation "Macedonian" as a regional label, and it began to gain popularity.In the 1860s, according to Petko Slaveykov, some young intellectuals from Macedonia were claiming that they are not Bulgarians, but they are rather Macedonians, descendants of the Ancient Macedonians.In a letter written to the Bulgarian Exarch in February 1874 Petko Slaveykov reports that discontentment with the current situation “has given birth among local patriots to the disastrous idea of working independently on the advancement of their own local dialect and what’s more, of their own, separate Macedonian church leadership.” Nevertheless, other Macedonian intellectuals as Miladinov Brothers, continued to call their land "Western" Bulgaria and worried that use of the new name would imply identification with the Greek nation.