EdwardG,
Do you mean something like this: 
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

my %name = map {chomp; $_ => undef} <DATA>;

for my $person ( keys %name ) {
    my $p_case = $person;
    $p_case =~ s/(\w+)/\u$1/g;
    $name{$p_case} = delete $name{$person};
}

my $finished = 0;

while ( ! $finished ) {
    my $update = 0;
    for my $person ( keys %name ) {
        my @shorter = split " " , $person;
        $_ =~ s/(\w+)\w/$1/ for @shorter;
        my $new_name = join " " , @shorter;
        if ( ! exists $name{$new_name} ) {
            $update = 1;
            $name{$new_name} = delete $name{$person};
        }
    }
    $finished = 1 if ! $update;
}

[download]
Cheers - L~R

In reply to Re: Generate unique initials from a list of names by Limbic~Region
in thread Generate unique initials from a list of names by EdwardG

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