A journalist from Kentish Town re-launching the radical feminist magazine Spare Rib has taken the glossy into the 21st century by letting online activists re-name it Hip Bone.

The re-branding comes after a legal row with the magazine’s original founders over the use of the Spare Rib name.

Editor Charlotte Raven, from Bartholomew Villas, re-launched the iconic 1970s magazine, which closed in 1993, in April.

But after its original founders Marsha Rowe and Rosie Boycott applied to trademark the original name, Ms Raven decided to change the magazine’s title rather than face a lengthy legal battle.

Hip Bone was suggested, jokingly, by an artist friend of Ms Raven but it won in an online poll.

Ms Raven said: “I like the name because Spare Rib was a joke that stuck and Hip Bone is the same. It makes me think fondly about the scene around the magazine, and the witty, interesting women who are part of it.

“Hip Bone also sounds more like a female version of Private Eye than some of the blander and safer names on our shortlist, so I was delighted when it stormed the poll.” More than 500 title suggestions were submitted, which were whittled down to just five – Monstrous Regiment, Feminist Times, Speculum, The Other Woman and The Purple Note Book.

But the final decision was postponed after members complained they didn’t like the five names.

Online voters then chose between the original five as well as Hip Bone, Femtext, The Wanderground, Woman’s Brigade and Ourselves.

Ms Raven added: “We’re working on content for the website which is launching in August. But first, and just as importantly, we’re going to have a re-naming party in my back garden to celebrate our new dawn.”

The magazine is funded by a paid membership system, which covers the cost of printing without selling any advertising and provides a free website.

About 250 members have signed up, donating £28,000 in total.