My internal onboard PCI intel 7265 gets a human name wlp2s0

However I have a USB ALFA AWUS036NHA (Atheros 9271L) card that is named as wlx00c0ca97323e, instead of (e.g wlp0s20u1).

sudo udevadm test /sys/class/net/wlx00c0ca97323e 2>/dev/null |grep ID_NET_NAME_
ID_NET_NAME_MAC=wlx00c0ca97323e
ID_NET_NAME_PATH=wlp0s20u1

This is pretty inconvenient for memorization, and I have to always copy-paste. Any ideas why this happens? Is this normal?

$ uname -a
Linux red 4.15.0-2-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.15.11-1 (2018-03-20) x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ ifconfig -a
wlp2s0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
 ether 18:5e:0f:9f:2c:61 txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
 RX packets 420 bytes 154184 (150.5 KiB)
 RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
 TX packets 242 bytes 46251 (45.1 KiB)
 TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

wlx00c0ca97323e: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
 inet 192.168.1.68 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255
 ether 00:c0:ca:97:32:3e txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
 RX packets 46034 bytes 21218629 (20.2 MiB)
 RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
 TX packets 47246 bytes 5743934 (5.4 MiB)
 TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

I have other connectivity/driver problems with that card but I suppose that they are irrelevant with this question...

Issue at Hand

Debian has moved to a newer method of outlining interface names. Your USB Wifi Adapter is being assigned its interface name based on its MAC address. Here is a link to a mail list outlining the change. I will try to help you by outlining the old method of forcing an adapter name and what could work as a new method.

1. Old Method

YOu can assign interface names using udev. Look for a file named /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules and append the portion listing your adapter device name. It should look something like this:

SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTRaddress=="[MAC ADDRESS]", NAME="[Adapter Name]" 

You can change all of your devices names here, verify first by the MAC address. Bring the interface down then run udevadm trigger --sysname [Old Interface Name] and bring the interface back up. This should change the name as outlined in this post. However this may no longer be a valid way of managing your interfaces as of stretch.

2. Newer Method

I am including a link to the Freedesktop Wiki on predictable network interface names. I am also referencing this post concerning a similar issue. It involves Ubuntu but could still apply.

The user there suggests creating a symbolic link between /etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-setup-link.rules and /dev/null. First start by copying rule 80 from /lib/udev/rules.d to /etc/udev/rules.d. Its contents should match what is listed in the post. Then run:

sudo ln -s /dev/null /etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-setup-link.rules

and reboot. This should allow your USB wireless interface to have a predictable network interface name.

Conclusion

Please read through all the links I have provided first and verify that your system has udev and the relevant files. These fixes should work, however I would always test these changes before permanently disabling certain features. If there are any misconceptions or issues with my post please do not hesitate to ask. I always appreciate corrections. Best of Luck!