My servers and workstations increment through the alphabet.
Addled
Burnout
Clueless
Dimension
Eptitude...
Last octet of the static IP is based on the position in the alphabet of each hostname and the NIC number in the system (Addled = .10, Burnout = .20 and .21 etc) regardless of which subnet that NIC resides on. When a system is retired, so is the name. Using this method I can get a pretty good idea of how old a system is in relation to the others. This scheme only works in a very small environment.
My suggestion is thus:
1-25 workstations: be creative. Use names that you can remember.
25-100 workstations: create groups of rooms or departments based on themes, and be creative within the themes. Tag hostnames on cases.
100+ workstations: use an asset-tag type scheme, possibly including location (campus-level, not cube-level) information that won't change, and perhaps user. Tag hostnames on cases. Reimage and rename systems when repurposing. Use a database to track specifics of the systems.