I wrote a subroutine that manifests some of the ideas I was given. Thanks everyone who contributed.

Here's the code:

#
# in : a name
# out : the prefix (or "" if none) in array pos 0 and the
# name (always present) in array pos 1.
#
# Understands the following forms:
#
# 2 name
# 1/2 name or 1\2 name
# (N+1) name
# 2M name or 2N name
# M name or N name
# 
sub get_name_parts($)
{
    ($_) = @_;
    
    if (m!^(\d+|\d+[\\/]\d+|\(N\+1\)|\d*[MN])\s(.+)!i) {
    return ($1, $2);
  } else {
      return ("", $_);    
  };

}
[download]

Thanks again and hope this helps people in the future.

Arun