[ebola1717]

I find it easier to read with the exception of the anonymous variables. In scala, I would write

    val persons = names
        .map { name => Person(name = name) }
        .filter { person => person.isValid }

[virtualwhys]

Dunno, it's fairly obvious what you're working with, being explicit doesn't buy that much (for me at any rate).

    val persons =
      names.map(Person.apply).
      filter(_.isValid)