The feature you describe is not exactly a Route 53 feature. It is a domain search order that is configured on your workstation/EC2. If you configure the list of domains to go through, it will let you find your host. Depending on your EC2 OS, it is configured differently. Let's say you have a Linux host. if you navigate to /etc/resolv.conf and edit it, you can configure search order like:

nameserver x.x.x.x

search example.com prod.example.com