Because I ssh into several different servers with generic usernames (e.g. login01), I found it more useful to use the other part of the hostname rather than the first field.

I used the following command to obtain this:

host=`echo $(hostname) | sed “s/$(echo “$(hostname -s)\.”)//g”`

to obtain “ls4.tacc.utexas.edu” instead of “login2″ from “login2.ls4.tacc.utexas.edu”