Nicola Sturgeon said she would not have the word national in the SNP name if making the decision now.

The SNP leader admitted the word "national" could be "hugely, hugely problematic” and said its connotations were at odds with her and her party’s vision for Scottish independence.

Ms Sturgeon was speaking to Turkish author Elif Shafak, at the book festival.

Ms Shafak said the word nationalism, has a “very negative meaning because I've seen how ugly it can get, how destructive it can become, how violent it can become and how it can divide people into imaginary categories and make them lose that cultural coexistence.”

She asked if nationalism can ever be benign adding “can it be a benevolent thing.”

Ms Sturgeon said the SNP vison of independence was internationalist not insular but she admitted she would have chosen a different name for the party.

She said: "The word is difficult.

"If I could turn the clock back, what 90 years, to the establishment of my party, and choose its name all over again, I wouldn't choose the name it has got just now, I would call it something other than the Scottish National Party.”

The First Minister said it was too complicated to change it now adding: “Because what those of us who do support Scottish independence are all about could not be further removed from some of what you would recognise as nationalism in other parts of the world.”

"Two things I believe that I think run so strongly through the Scottish independence movement are firstly that it doesn't matter where you come from, if Scotland is your home and you live here and you feel you have a stake in the country, you are Scottish and you have as much say over the future of the country as I do. And that is a civic, open, inclusive view of the world that is so far removed from what you would rightly fear.

"Secondly one of the great motivators for those of us who support Scottish independence is wanting to have a bigger voice in the world, it's about being outward looking and internationalist, not inward looking and insular.”

She said Scottish independence was about running your own affairs and self-government.

Opposition politicians seized on the remarks to state the SNP was divisive.

Jackie Baillie, Labour MSP said: "Nationalism is by its very nature divisive.
“That's why Labour rejects narrow nationalism and believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more together than we achieve alone.
“That is something Nicola Sturgeon - for all of her posturing and spin - will never truly believe.”
A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives said: “The SNP’s problem with nationalism isn’t the name, it’s the whole attitude of the party.

“Coming up with a more cuddly name wouldn’t change a jot.

“At heart, it would still be a movement seeking to break up Britain at all costs, and Nicola Sturgeon knows it.”