Fame/Flynet

General Hospital's Greg Vaughan announced on Twitter yesterday that he and wife, Dutch model Touriya Haoud, welcomed their third son, Landan Reid Vaughan. Landan will join big brothers Jathan James and Cavan Thomas. 

Although it has been a popular trend lately to play with spelling in order to bring freshness to a popular name, Vaughan and Haoud have an interesting naming pattern. With their third child, we can clearly see the three are all alternate, original spellings on more popular names. But they also all feature an A after the first letter, an A after the middle consonant(s) and end in the letter N. While many parents choose a particular style such as biblical or vintage names, or the well-known trend of giving all of your children the same first initial, Vaughan and Haoud have created their very own naming template. 

As was previously mentioned, Cavan is a creative riff on Kevin, and Jathan is a nice mashup of James and Nathan, or a possibly a shortening of Jonathan. Landan, similarly, but less dramatically, is an alternate spelling of the rising name Landon. Ranking no. 32 in 2010, Landon has risen steeply since the 1960s, but it is not entirely a new name. It also popped into the top-1,000 names in the late 19th century and in the 1930s. Following their unique first names, the brothers also all have a traditional middle name.  

What do you think of the name Landan? What about the sibset of Jathan, Cavan and Landan?

--A.F.