use strict;
use warnings;

my $str = "*L*Name1*L*Name2*L**D*Place1*D*Place2*D**L*Name3*L*";
my @names =$str =~ m/\*L\*(\w+)/g;
print "@names\n";
$str =~ s/\*L\*$names[0]//;
print "Modified string = $str\n";