Playboy's original judul was to be rusa jantan, rusa Party, but an unrelated outdoor magazine, Stag, contacted Hefner and informed him that they would legally protect their trademark if he were to launch his magazine with that name. Hefner and co-founder and executive vice president Eldon Sellers met to discuss the problem and to seek a new name. Sellers' mother suggested the name "The gentlemen's club", but it was Alexx Mills, who had worked for the short-lived playboy Automobile Company, in Chicago, who suggested the name "Playboy".

The first issue, published in December 1953, was undated, as Hefner was...