Perhaps using a state variable within the sub will work for you:

use Modern::Perl;

for ( 1 .. 10 ) {
    my @names =
      (qw/Fred Barney Wilma Betty Bam-Bam Perl Java C++ Ruby Lisp/)
      [ 0 .. int( rand(10) ) ];

    my ( $how_many, $count ) = check_names(@names);
    say "How Many Names: $how_many\nCount: $count\n";

}

sub check_names {

    my (@names) = @_;
    state $count = 0;
    $count++;

    my $how_many_names_total = @names;
    return $how_many_names_total, $count;

}
[download]

Output:

How Many Names: 1
Count: 1

How Many Names: 3
Count: 2

How Many Names: 5
Count: 3

How Many Names: 9
Count: 4

How Many Names: 1
Count: 5

How Many Names: 5
Count: 6

How Many Names: 5
Count: 7

How Many Names: 9
Count: 8

How Many Names: 2
Count: 9

How Many Names: 7
Count: 10
[download]

Hope this helps!