Data Step Array (Macro) Variables

I want some thing simple. I have a data file with many fields with sequential names, and I want to reorganize them. It's all dead simple regex logic: var12 becomes var2 in row 1, var22 becomes var2 in row 2. Two minutes in python. In SAS...

So here's my method of making an Array Macro Variable (nothing native to the best of my knowledge) on which I will then use numbered indexes to massage the table later:

data _null_;
    i = 1;
    DO name = "bear","pig","velociraptor";
        ii = left(put(i,2.));
        call symput('variable_name'||ii,name);
        i+1;
        put name;
    END;

The output of that is the following

bear
pic
velo

Oh yeah, that happened. SAS guessed the length of name for the loop at 4 characters, then truncated velociraptor.

The solution was to use the length name $12:

data _null_;
    i = 1;
    length name $12;
    DO name = "bear","pig","velociraptor";
        ii = left(put(i,2.));
        call symput('variable_name'||ii,name);
        i+1;
        put name;
    END;