That won't produce quite what he specifies:

yours makes %names = name => bob => jane
                             joe => sue
                     name2 => john => me
                              oh => my
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but his text seems to say he wants this:

yours makes %names = name => first => bob 
                             second => jane
                             third => joe 
                             fourth => sue
                     name2 => first => john 
                              second => me
                              third => oh 
                              fourth => my
[download]

if this is really what is wanted, try this slight change:

use strict;
my %names;

while (<>)
{
  my ($label, $name1, $name2, $name3, $name4) = split /:/;
  $names{$label}{"first"} = {$name1}
  $names{$label}{"second"} = $name2;
  $names{$label}{"third"} = {$name3} 
  $names{$label}{"fourth"} = $name4;
}
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'The fickle fascination of and Everlasting God' - Billy Corgan, The Smashing Pumpkins