I wasn't going to call it Playboy: Hugh Hefner

Playboy chief Hugh Hefner says initially he wanted to call his world-famous magazine Stag Party but decided to change it to Playboy at the last minute.

It was Hefner's associate Eldon Sellers who suggested the title Playboy, the 86-year-old revealed in an interview to legendary tennis player Vijay Amritraj on CNN IBN's show "Dimensions".

"I wasn't going to call the magazine Playboy. I wanted to call the magazine Stag Party, influenced by a cartoon book that I had. I was looking for a male figure of some kind and I thought of an animal in tuxedo will set us apart," Hefner told Amritraj during a conversation at the Los Angeles-based Playboy mansion.

"At the very last minute I got a letter from the lawyer of Stag magazine saying that it was an infringement on their title. I was literally about a month from publishing date and I was already having second thoughts about the title. So at the very last minute changed the name and changed the image and called it Playboy and rest as you say is history," he added.

The interview will be aired Saturday, with a repeat telecast Sunday. Playboy is a US men's magazine. It is popular for boldly featuring photographs of nude women, apart from regular articles and stories.

The first issue of the magazine was published in 1953, and featured screen goddess Marilyn Monroe.