perl -w explains the behavior you're seeing: 
print (...) interpreted as function at /tmp/t86 line 6.

Perl is interpreting the print statement, followed by parentheses, is a call to print with the arguments in parentheses (print("hi there") instead of print "hi there").

This is an ambiguous syntax, which is why it generates a warning.

You can work around it, as you have, by putting something between the print and the parentheses, or by actually using a parenthesized call to print: 

print ((split ' ', $name)[-1]);

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In reply to Re: Confused about unary + by sgifford
in thread Confused about unary + by Not_a_Number

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