You will always need a version number for a project, however it is possible to change the name of the generated package (JAR, WAR, EAR, etc.) through the <finalName> element in the POM.
<project>
...
<build>
...
<finalName>${project.artifactId}</finalName>
...
</build>
...
</project>
or in older versions of maven:
...
<finalName>${artifactId}</finalName>
...
By default, the finalName is ${project.artifactId}-${project.version}, but this can be changed to something else. This will only affect the name of the package created in the target directory; the file name in the local repository and uploaded to remote repositories will always have a version number.
See the POM reference documentation for more information.