Ok I know this works:

entity_handle[entity_count] = handle(me);
entity_count += 1;

my_panel = str_create("panel");
my_panel = str_cat_num(my_panel,"%.0f",entity_count);

This creates a string called panel3 as entity_count ends at 3. Now I need to figure out how to make an array for these strings, then call at every entity_count+ and turn the string into compilable code. Phew.