How to select multiple objects but group individually?

[tonyl46208138]

I have an AI file with like 500 icons on an artboard.

Each individual icon consists of the actual icon, and a circle behind it.  The icons and circles are not currently grouped.

I'm trying to export them all using the assets panel, but when I select them all and drag them there, the circles and icons are all listed as seperate assets.  I need to export each one individually with the icon and circle as a single asset.

Since there are 500 icons in the file, selecting each circle and icon individually and grouping all of them manually is not ideal and will take a ton of time. 

Is there a way to select them all, but group them individually?  If this cannot be done with AI's existing functionality, does anyone know of a script that might do this?

Thanks for your help!

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

Check out this script: https://github.com/iconifyit/ai-scripts/blob/master/Group%20Overlapping%20Objects.jsx

[tonyl46208138]

Hi @Monika Gause - this worked - thanks so much!!

[Kurt Gold]

There may be varying approaches, depending on how your files are composed.

Can you share a sample Illustrator file with at least 10 to 20 icons?