A hash slice is a good way to initialize that sort of thing,

my %word;
@word{'AALIYAH', 'AARON', 'ABBE' , 'ABBEY',
      'ABBI', 'ABBIE', 'ABBIGAIL', 'ALEX'} = ();
[download]

though you probably wouldn't hardcode the hash keys in a real application of this kind.

After Compline,
Zaxo