my %xref;
$xref{'NAME'} = 'NAME';
$xref{'DESC'} = 'DECSRIPTION';
$xref{'DATE'} = 'DATE';

while (<DATA>) {
#	s/(NAME|DESC|DATE)(\d*)/$xref{$1}/eg;
	s/(NAME|DESC|DATE)(\d*)/$2/g;

	print;
}

__DATA__
NAME010 DESC025 DATE009
NAME011 DESC035 DATE009