Solved:

$.getJSON('contacts.json', function (json) {
var array = [];
for (var key in json) {
    if (json.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
        var item = json[key];
        array.push({
            name: item.Name,
            surname: item.Surname,
            mobile: item.mobile,
            email: item.email
        });            
    }
}
});

As long as the file is inside your project folder (config file, i.e.) you can load it synchronously requiring it directly in NodeJS.

var test = require('./array.json');

And then the content will be loaded into your variable in the next executed sentence.

You can try to console.log it, and it will print:

[ { name: 'c', content: '3', _prototype: 'item' },
  { name: 'd', content: '4', _prototype: 'item' } ]

Right exactly in the order that the file had.

Despite having marked this question as a "duplicate", I believe a few points are worth mentioning to the OP:

First, if you are using D3, there is no need of using XMLHttpRequest to get the JSON. D3 has a function just for that:

d3.json("filename.json", function(data){
    //code using `data`
});

Second, and the most important: why do you want to store the JSON in a global variable? There is absolutely no reason to do that. Once d3.json loaded your json, you can do everything inside the callback.

For instance, inside the callback, you can simply map your data array to get your desired outcome (once d3.json don't work in SO snippet, I'm using a variable here):

var data = [{"name": "Alice","number": 10},
   {"name": "Bob","number": 20},
   {"name": "Mary","number": 50}];

var newData = data.map(function(d){ return d.number});
console.log(newData);

Altogether, this is the code:

d3.json("filename.json", function(data){
    var newData = data.map(function(d){ return d.number});
});

You seem to have the order wrong, data is the array so it's not

data.name[i]

but

data[i].name

and removing the strange apply it would be

$.getJSON('json.js',function (data) {   
    for (var i = 0; i < data.length; i++) {
        name.push( data[i].name );
        address.push( data[i].address );
        city.push( data[i].city );
    }
});

Also note that name is a bad choice for a variable name in the global context.

Javascript has a built in JSON parse for strings, which I think is what you have:

var myObject = JSON.parse("my json string");

to use this with your example would be:

var jsonData = JSON.parse(myMessage);
for (var i = 0; i < jsonData.counters.length; i++) {
    var counter = jsonData.counters[i];
    console.log(counter.counter_name);
}

Here is a working example

EDIT: There is a mistake in your use of for loop (I missed this on my first read, credit to @Evert for the spot). using a for-in loop will set the var to be the property name of the current loop, not the actual data. See my updated loop above for correct usage

IMPORTANT: the JSON.parse method wont work in old old browsers - so if you plan to make your website available through some sort of time bending internet connection, this could be a problem! If you really are interested though, here is a support chart (which ticks all my boxes).