The EQ client does have a hard-coded list of zone id numbers and nicknames, so you'll have to use one of the existing nicknames. The client looks for a ZoneNick.eqg file first, and if it doesn't find that, a ZoneNick.s3d file.
I made a tool that extracts this list and some additional info about the zones. You can see the resulting data for the RoF client here:
http://www.shendare.com/EQ/Emu/EQRI/RoF2_EQZones.htm