table name length restriction

Hi

I (well, a colleague of mine) have a problem where table names are
longer than the 70 char limit. The names must be human readable, i.e. no
synthetic name mapping etc. The table creation and the created name are
executed automatically, so an algorithm to create a fancy short name is
just more pain than its worth.

First question is, what is the rationale behind having a limit on the
table name?

Secondly Any ideas on how to solve this problem? Is the name length
limit configurable?

regards

thomas