For a script like you describe I'm not quite understanding how that would be different than assigning the same name to the objects you want to turn on/off together.

Is it that you want to do it without using the object's name? What are you doing with the name then?

Do you want to have multiple "visibility lists" or just a single global one?

Because having multiple visibility lists that you can turn on/off just sounds like redoing what the scene browser does already... ?

- Michael