use strict ; # please, do
use IO::File ;

my ($name1,$name2) ;

my $fh = IO::File->new() ;
$fh->fdopen(fileno(STDOUT),'w') or die "Cannot open STDOUT: $!" ;

$fh->format_name('NAMES') ;

# Write to STDOUT using $fh, like this
foreach my $data ([qw(mama papa)],[qw(tick tock)],[qw(cip ciop)]) {
  ($name1,$name2) = @$data ;
  $fh->format_write() ;
}

# your format definition goes here
format NAMES =
@<<<<<<<< @<<<<<<<<<
$name1    $name2
.