It, most certainly, is possible to change both the description and serial number (which is used for the name listed in /dev) in the EEPROM of the FTDI chip - at least on OS X - which should also show up in Ubuntu.
Note: I've not been able to check it as my Ubuntu box has just suddenly died (PSU failure)..!
This method uses an application for OS X, so there is probably a similar application for Ubuntu - I've just not found one yet. There is also an "official" tool (for Windows) on the FTDI website - There is even one for FreeBSD, but sadly there doesn't appear to be one for Ubuntu.
From Pirate Rename – Get a nicely named serial device and using Bus Pirate:
Original description and serial number
Modified description and serial number:
Once saved, the FTDI device should now show up as
On OS X
/dev/tty.usbserial-PirateV3
On Ubuntu
<Unable to check currently>
One of the Windows utilities on the FTDI utilities webpage:
You may see an error, such as
Program execution is not possible because FTD2XX.dll is not found
In which case you are missing a driver. You can get the required DLL from the FTDI drivers page. Put the .dll file in the same directory as the application, it should find it (hopefully).
There is no way to set a name for a device in the device itself. The name is generated by the operating system.
Specifically, in current versions of Ubuntu (and many other distros), the /dev directory is dynamic and is maintained by udev. You can use attributes of the device (like serial number) to identify the device in udev and select a name.
To make this "permanent" you would create a udev config file and drop it in the udev config directory on each installation you need it on.
There are many guides online for this, including writing udev rule for USB device
