Godzilla has had many children over the course of the franchise. Nearly all of them have been sons. However, this idea was first introduced in the thoroughly silly 1967 film Son of Godzilla. Minilla received his name from a Toho contest, eventually settling on the portmanteau of "mini" and "Godzilla". Following Son of Godzilla, Minilla appeared in the Showa-era films Destroy All Monsters, All Monsters Attack, Godzilla vs. Gigan.