Python array literal syntax sugar similar to Perl and Ruby
If you call split with no arguments, it will split on any whitespace and drop any empty elements. Knowing that, it's as simple as this:

ary_names = """
    alpha
    bravo
    charlie
    delta
    echo
""".split()


If you have only five short elements, you may want to put them all on one line:

ary_names = 'alpha bravo charlie delta echo'.split()


Of course, you'd only want to do that if it fits easily on one line.