Apache on localhost: give virtual hosts specific servers name

I ask my question first and below are details of what I have so far trying to solve the thing:

On Apache running on localhost, I want to have different virtual hosts that would be accessible through url: http://name-of-the-virtual-host.name-of-the-machine/

Details:

So I have Apache running on port 8080 of my laptop. Linux Mint, so Debian distro. Everything is in local for testing purposes, so no DNS involved! The IP address I use is 127.0.1.1 which has the domain of my computer, called fabjoa. On the file /etc/apache2/apache2.conf, I've put:

ServerName fabjoa

In the file /etc/hosts, there is indeed the line

127.0.1.1 fabjoa

In the file /etc/apache2/ports.conf

NameVirtualHost *:8080
Listen 8080

Now, the conf file of my virtual host. The file is called is goyahkla and is located on /etc/apache2/sites-available/ and has a symbolic link in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled. On this file, I have the following:

<VirtualHost *:8080>
 ServerName goyakhla.fabjoa
 ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
 DocumentRoot /var/sites/goyahkla

....

<Directory /var/sites/goyahkla/>
  Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
  AllowOverride All
  Order allow,deny
  allow from all
 </Directory>

...

</VirtualHost>

Running apache2ctl configtest gives me Syntax OK. Now, on browser, opening http://fabjoa:8080/ does point to the Virtual Host goyahkla (beacause that's the only one I have), but http://goyahkla.fabjoa:8080 is not found. Other debugging:

telnet goyahkla.fabjoa:8080
telnet: could not resolve goyahkla.fabjoa:8080/telnet: Name or service not known

lynx goyahkla.fabjoa:8080
Looking up  'goyahkla.fabjoa' first
Looking up  'www.goyahkla.fabjoa.com', guessing...

Looking up goyahkla.fabjoa first
Looking up www.goyahkla.fabjoa.com, guessing...
Looking up www.goyahkla.fabjoa.com:8080
Making HTTP connection to www.goyahkla.fabjoa.com:8080
Alert!: Unable to connect to remote host.

lynx: Can't access startfile http://www.goyahkla.fabjoa.com:8080/ 

Any idea on how purpose could be achieved?

I have to create new entries in /etc/hosts for each virtual host.

For example, I've added the following line:

127.0.2.1 goyahkla

Which allows me to access it through

http://goyahkla/

What you're looking for is a 127.0.1.1 *.fabjoa style syntax in your hosts file. Unfortunately, the hosts file doesn't support this. You'd have to use DNS for that or enter each one individually like you mentioned above.