In Perl 5, sigils are more like qualifier adjectives that plural modifiers. I always read $ as "that" and @ as "those". So using plural forms for arrays makes perfect sense to me:

    $num = 7;              # that num is 7
    @nums = 1..7;          # those nums are 1..7

    @squares               # those squares
       = map $_**2, @nums; #   are those nums squared

    $max                   # that max 
       = $squares[6];      #   is that element at index 6 of squares
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