The problem with numbered hostnames is that it's very difficult to remember which host is which, even in the course of very short projects (was that ser0483 or ser0438 that needed rebooted?) etc. Although I'll grant you that numbered hostnames is probably the only workable alternative for a large farm of otherwise identical servers (VMWare server farm, rendering farm, etc.)

I've never found numeric names to be a problem. And there is _never_ a problem with how to spell the name. I will take "ssh m435.local.domain" over (real world example, ARGH) "ssh Vanaheimr.local.domain." and "ssh Muspellheim.local.domain" - I want to shoot people who think that's clever.