WordPress - storing array of values in custom post type custom meta field

am_I_doing_it_wrong

<?php 
// This is essentially what I have adding the post meta field, not doing this from the edit post screen.

  $name_meta['first-name']  = "Joe";
	$name_meta['middle-name'] = "D.";
	$name_meta['last-name']   = "Schmoe";
	$name_meta['suffix']      = "Jr.";
	
	update_post_meta($post->ID, '_staff_member_name', $name_meta);
	// update_post_meta automatically serializes the array when adding it to the database
?>

<?php
// Here, I'm pulling the data.
  $stored_name_array	 = get_post_meta($post->ID, '_staff_member_name', true);
  // get_post_meta automatically unserializes the data. Adding 'true' returns just the inner array.
  
  print_r($stored_name_array);
  // This returns:
  //        Array ( [\'first-name\'] => Joe [\'middle-name\'] => J. [\'last-name\'] => Schmoe [\'suffix\'] => Jr. )
  // Why are there escaped single quotes in the array keys? I've never seen this before.
	
	foreach ($stored_name_array as $key => $value) {
	    $stored_name_array[str_replace("'", '', stripslashes($key))] = $value;
	    unset($stored_name_array[$key]);
	}
	
	print_r($stored_name_array);
  // This returns:
  //        Array ( [first-name] => Joe [middle-name] => J. [last-name] => Schmoe [suffix] => Jr. )
?>