Ping sometimes resolves the name, sometimes not

Question

Is this a normal behavior, that ping sometimes displays the server name, sometimes only the IP?

OS: Ubuntu 12.10

~# ping development.example.local
PING development.example.local (192.168.0.25) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.0.25: icmp_req=1 ttl=64 time=0.261 ms
64 bytes from dev.example.local (192.168.0.25): icmp_req=2 ttl=64 time=0.265 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.25: icmp_req=3 ttl=64 time=0.279 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.25: icmp_req=4 ttl=64 time=0.270 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.25: icmp_req=5 ttl=64 time=0.307 ms
64 bytes from dev.example.local (192.168.0.25): icmp_req=6 ttl=64 time=0.303 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.25: icmp_req=7 ttl=64 time=0.254 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.25: icmp_req=8 ttl=64 time=0.311 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.25: icmp_req=9 ttl=64 time=0.271 ms
64 bytes from dev.example.local (192.168.0.25): icmp_req=10 ttl=64 time=0.278 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.25: icmp_req=11 ttl=64 time=0.234 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.25: icmp_req=12 ttl=64 time=0.320 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.25: icmp_req=13 ttl=64 time=0.486 ms
64 bytes from dev.example.local (192.168.0.25): icmp_req=14 ttl=64 time=0.283 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.25: icmp_req=15 ttl=64 time=0.255 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.25: icmp_req=16 ttl=64 time=0.298 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.25: icmp_req=17 ttl=64 time=0.289 ms
64 bytes from dev.example.local (192.168.0.25): icmp_req=18 ttl=64 time=0.312 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.25: icmp_req=19 ttl=64 time=0.246 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.25: icmp_req=20 ttl=64 time=0.296 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.25: icmp_req=21 ttl=64 time=0.499 ms
64 bytes from dev.example.local (192.168.0.25): icmp_req=22 ttl=64 time=0.309 ms

Answer 1

I found a logical explanation for that: The reverse lookup entries in our DNS are a mess:

host 192.168.0.25
25.0.168.192.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer dev.example.local.
25.0.168.192.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer *.dev.example.local.
25.0.168.192.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer *.development.example.local.
25.0.168.192.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer *.develpoment.example.local.

The result of the DNS reverse lookup is (as any DNS result) returned in random order. Three of the results seem invalid to me, because they start with *.. so only every fourth of ping's tries to resolve the IP returns a valid host. In all other cases, the IP is shown.