Lando
Lando · 913 – 914
The pope with the most unusual name in papal history, who served a brief and uneventful pontificate in the early tenth century.
Lando was from Sabina, north of Rome. He reigned for about six months during the continued dominance of the Theophylact family over Roman affairs. Almost nothing is known about his pontificate. His name is notable for being unique in papal history: no subsequent pope has ever chosen or been born with the name Lando. He died in early 914 and was succeeded by John X, a more vigorous and politically active pope.
One of a Kind
Lando holds a minor distinction: no other pope has ever shared his name. Whether future popes avoided it deliberately or it simply never came up again is anyone's guess. His pontificate itself was too short and too overshadowed by aristocratic politics to leave much of a mark.