On VL 5.8, udev makes this very easy for you by providing an /etc/udev/rules.d/network-devices.rules file customized to your hardware (NOTE: this is actually not provided by default). In it you will find a line for each of your network interfaces, defined by MAC address. All you need to do is remove the comment markers (#) and edit the names as you want them. Here's an example of how this looks:
KERNEL=="eth?", SYSFS{address}=="00:c0:9f:f2:fd:c1", NAME="eth0"
KERNEL=="eth?", SYSFS{address}=="00:14:a5:28:68:3a", NAME="eth1"
As stated above, you only need to know which MAC address corresponds to which network adapter, then set the "NAME=" part as you want it. Keep in mind that ifplugd is set to handle only ethX type interfaces, so if you use a name like "wlan0", you will have to handle it another way (NOTE: seems it does handle wlan0).
If you change your network interfaces and want a new file set up automatically, simply delete the current file and udev should set a new one up for you on the next boot.