dnsmasq

DNS, DHCP, TFTP in a simple package.

DNS configuration gets read from host, namely /etc/hosts for hosts and /etc/resolv/conf for other stuff. You can overwrite locations of both these files and add more hosts (addn-hosts).

For shorter names there are expand-hosts and domain options, which add a domain to the end of every host (e.g. 'my-computer.lan'). These are complimented by search <domain> in resolvconf, allowing you to use short names while being precise.