Pathauto

There is a contributed project called Pathauto that simplifies the process of providing URL aliases. It allows you to define patterns that will automatically create URL aliases for content. This module utilizes tokens to allow for very robust paths for content.

The Pathauto project can be found at https://www.drupal.org/project/pathauto.

There is a proposed issue to provide the functionality of Pathauto in Drupal core, and it can be followed at https://www.drupal.org/node/229568.