Can names have embedded spaces? Can the "haven't got a clue" part have embedded spaces?

Without knowing this, we can't know whether to break   MOTEL GOLDEN LEEUW <A225> into   (MOTEL)()(GOLDEN LEEUW <A225>) or   (MOTEL GOLDEN LEEUW)()(<A225>) Assuming for a moment that the latter is the correct way to divide the field, you could do something like

while ( <DATA> ) {
    if ( /^(.*)\s*($Pred_re)\s*(.*)$/ ) {
        ($name,$pred,$unknown) = ($1, $2, $3);
    } else {
        ($name,$unknown,$pred) = /^(.*)\s*(\S*)$/;
    }
}
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Updated: to tweak the whitespace matching.

Update 2: Bah. Forget the feeble effort above.

my $Prep_Re=join '|',('VAN DER','VAN DE','DEN','DE','VAN');

while ( <DATA> ) {
    chomp;
    if ( /^(.*)\s+($Prep_Re)\b\s*(.*)$/ ) {
        ($name, $prep, $other) = ($1, $2, $3);
    }
    elsif ( /^(.*)\s+($Prep_Re)\s*$/ ) {
        ($name, $prep, $other) = ($1, $2, "");
    }
    elsif ( /^(.*)\b\s+(\S+)$/ ) {
        ($name, $prep, $other) = ($1, "", $2);
    }
    else {
        ($name, $prep, $other) = ($_, "", "");
    }
    print "$name|$prep|$other\n";
}

__DATA__
WINTER DE   <A240>
ZANDEN VAN DER     ŤAť
JENSEN  230
WOODHEAD  <D>
BRINK    130,-
HEYDIER DEN  <240>
SMITSER  (4X115PJ)
LINDEN VAN DER
MOTEL GOLDEN LEEUW <A225>
__END__
WINTER|DE|<A240>
ZANDEN|VAN DER|ŤAť
JENSEN||230
WOODHEAD||<D>
BRINK||130,-
HEYDIER|DEN|<240>
SMITSER||(4X115PJ)
LINDEN|VAN DER|
MOTEL GOLDEN LEEUW||<A225>
[download]