Array of Strings in a Class

I've been scouring the internet all morning looking for a solution to this problem, but nothing ever fits what I need. I'm creating a class which needs access to a list of names. I'm having a lot of trouble creating and then accessing this list/array/vector of names. The list is approximately 3005 names long (I copy/paste it in), so I can't use vector.push_back(). I tried using constructors, but couldn't get that to work. Here's a shortened (and simplified) sample of my code:

Code:

---

class name:
{
    std::string first_name[];
public:
    name();
    static std::string get_first()
    {
        return first_name[0];
    }
};

name::name(void)
{
    first_name[] = {"Aaliyah", "Aaron", "Abagail", "Abbey", "Abbie"...}
}

---

With code identical to that, I get errors:
invalid use of member 'name::first_name' in static member function
expected primary-expression before ']/{' token

Can anyone help me? Is there an easier way to do this?

EDIT: Forgot to mention, I'm new to C++. I've been programming in C for a long time, but this project necessitates C++ for class inheritance.

Array initialization doesn't work that way in C++ any more than it does in C. Consider a std::vector instead.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rags_to_riches

Array initialization doesn't work that way in C++ any more than it does in C. Consider a std::vector instead.

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Let's say I consider a vector instead (which I have). How do I add 3000+ names to this vector easily? I could do it during initialization in a constructor, but then I don't think I'd be in the right scope to access that vector anymore once I needed it in the other methods.

What does work is putting the giant arrays outside of the class definition, essentially making them global. I'm fairly certain that's considered horrendous programming style, so I'd like to fix it in some way. Any help? How can I get my class to define an array, assign stuff to it, and then access it from several methods?

It is possible to create an array, but it just isn't possible to initialize it (unless it's static).
What you need to do is create an array with a fixed size (or std::vector) and then assign your data to the array instead of initializing it.
(This should be fixed in C++0x, I believe. But we're not there yet.)

Thanks for the responses. I realized that the problem could be fixed by simply declaring the data arrays inside the methods from which they're used. The test program is not noticeably slower, and I guess that means it won't have to use that array if I don't use that method. All is good.

Why not put all the names in a file and have your program read each name into a vector of strings?