Static strings are words surrounded by double quotation marks. Do not forget that arrays begin at zero, not 1 for the index number. However, just remember that there will be an extra character on the end on a string. It is like a period at the end of a sentence, it is not counted as a letter, but it still takes up a space. Technically, in a fifty char array you could only hold 49 letters and one null character at the end to terminate the string.
Strings are useful for holding all types of long input.
If you want the user to input his or her name, you must use a string. The best way to handle this situation is to use the function cin.getline. Technically cin is a class, and you are calling one of its member functions. The most important thing is to understand how to use the function however. Keep in mind that it will discard whatever the terminal character is.