fun fact, mcyt is actually not the first place iāve encountered metaphor-type ship names!
going way wayyyy back to when i was in middle school and my child self liked The 100 for some reason, some ship names for that fandom were your usual portmanteaus (clexa, memori, etc) but some were the same type weāre seeing pop up more in mcyt spaces (sea mechanic, doctor mechanic). for some reason it was mostly raven ships that got that treatment? (and thereās more inconsistency bc murven doesnāt follow that!) idk why her specifically, tbh.
in terms of differences between the two, t100ās ship names were two words, and charactersā āassigned wordsā (so to speak) usually remained consistent, whereas with mcyt ships are mostly one word (or. well. ships are mostly one word now, but earlier non-portmanteau examples like boat boys or flower husbands break that trend. although it is worth mentioning that the two listed seem to describe the pairs as units/relationships rather than distinct parts put together.)
so. i wonder what gave rise to that style of ship name in the 100 fandom, and what gave rise to it in mcyt, and potentially similarities and differences. i donāt have any answers. itās just like. fun to think about