$re = '/([a-zA-Z]+, )\1/m';
$str = '0 @I@ INDI 1 NAME Anna /Von Hat/ 2 GIVN Anna 2 SURN Von Hat 1 BIRT 2 DATE 01 Jan 2000 2 PLAC Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark';
$subst = "$1";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php