There is an old black gospel song from the American South, most often sung to the driving beat of a blues guitar, which includes the following lyrics:

There's a man going around taking names.
There's a man going around taking names.
He took my father's name,And he left my heart in pain.

There's a man going around taking names.
There's a man going around taking names.
He took my mother's name,And he left my heart in pain.

There's a man going around taking names.
There's a man going around taking names.
He took my sister's name,And he left my heart in pain.

There's a man going around taking names.1

In the song, the "man going around taking names" is a metaphor, of course, for all that menaces human relationships and life -- most prominently, the slave trader and, finally, death itself. …