($_ =~ /Perl/ )
[download]

Bob
John
Jenna
Whoever
[download]

Yes, very possible. Say that you have your names, one per line, in names.txt. You can read them into an array then use join to join the array members into a string separated by the pipe symbol ('|') which is the alternation metacharacter in a regex. Thus your pattern reads match Fred or Joe or ... or Pete. Like this.

use strict;
use warnings;

my $namesFile = q{names.txt};
open my $namesFH, q{<}, $namesFile
   or die qq{open: $namesFile: $!\n};
my @names = <$namesFH>;
close $namesFH
   or die qq{close: $namesFile: $!\n};

chomp @names;  # Remove line terminators

my $namesPatt = join q{|}, @names;

my $dataFile = q{data.txt};
open my $dataFH, q{<}, $dataFile
   or die qq{open: $dataFile: $!\n};

while ( <$dataFH> )
{
    print qq{Found name $1\n} if /($namesPatt)/;
}

close $dataFH
   or die qq{close: $dataFile: $!\n};
[download]

Note that I use parentheses in the regex to capture the name matched for later use in $1. I hope this is helpful.

Cheers,

JohnGG

Update: Corrected poor punctuation/grammar.

Now I have edited a few things and it now prints everything in the list. It print the output with the right response. but when saved it prints all 4 sentences. What am I doing wrong?

use strict;
use warnings;

my $namesFile = q{names.txt};
open my $namesFH, q{<}, $namesFile
   or die qq{open: $namesFile: $!\n};
my @names = <$namesFH>;
close $namesFH
   or die qq{close: $namesFile: $!\n};

chomp @names;  # Remove line terminators

my $namesPatt = join q{|}, @names;

my $dataFile = q{data2.txt};
open my $dataFH, q{<}, $dataFile
   or die qq{open: $dataFile: $!\n};

while ( <$dataFH> )
{
    print qq{Found name $_\n} if /($namesPatt)/;
    open FILE, ">>/home/btobin/data3.txt" or die "Unable to Open: $!";
    print FILE "$_\n"; <--- somehow this is wrong
    close FILE;
}

close $dataFH
   or die qq{close: $dataFile: $!\n};
[download]

Sentences used:

This is a data file created to learn how to use Perl .
This is how Bob found his way.
I wonder what Jonny is going to do.
This is a test.
[download]