JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.3/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div id='names'>
    name1[John]
    name2[Blake]
    name3[Sven]
    name4[Ellis]
</div>

JavaScript

var toParse = document.getElementById('names').innerHTML;
var m;
var re = /\[(.*)\]/g;

while (m = re.exec(toParse)) {
  console.log(m[1]);
}