Another way?

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;

while (<DATA>) {
    chomp;
    my $name;
    s/^(\w+)\s?;// and $name = $1;
    for my $i ( split ";" ) {
        print "$name; $i\n";
    }
}

__DATA__
alex ;teacher; 1945-12-1; california
john; lawyer ; texas
peter ;teacher; 1948-01-04
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