Is there a way to use design level names with 'get_pins' when creating constraints?

I almost never use [get_pins..], part of which is for the reasons you describe above. Use get_keepers or get_registers(same thing in this case) and use the name of the register.

create_generated_clock -name ripple_clk -source [get_ports clkin] [get_keepers {ClockDivider:clockdivider|Counter[10]}] -divide_by 1024

(I made this up, so adjust accordingly).

The only time I use get_pins is to grab the pins on a PLL, i.e. if this clock divider was driven by a PLL then the -source option would be [get_pins PLL_name], which I would get the syntax from derive_pll_clocks. THe other place I use it is on a clock mux which is combinatorial. I put a (* keep *) attribute on the output and use the |combout name for the get_pins assignment.