Perl on OS X -- Yur Doing it Rong.

moo@cassidy[238]~>perl
    print "What is your name? ";
    $name = <STDIN>;
    print "Your name is $name\n";
^D
What is your name? Me
Your name is Me
[download]

Though I don't know what you're doing wrong because that runs fine for me (10.4 and 10.5). You're probably not running what you think you are.