#!/usr/bin/perl

use 5.010;
use strict;
use warnings;

for(
    "yada yada <name> string-to-capture </name> foo bar baz",
    'another<name>string</name>'
   ){
    my $var=join(q{},split(q{ },(m{<name>(.*?)</name>}is)[0]//next));
    print "<$var>\n";
}