Most of the stats aren't Unique Passives (CDR, etc.)
Unique Passive is generally used in one of two ways:
- Balance reasons. Rabadon's Deathcap, Void Staff, Infinity Edge, nuff said.
- Thematics. Unique Passive by nature takes up more space on the tooltip. It helps draw attention to say, "Hey! This part of the item is new and different and interesting."
As far as naming them, it's for one wide reason: It's a mechanic that's tied together. When you see Conservation on Ancient Golem and Elder Lizard, you know they're a very similar mechanic (Identical, actually). Same for all the Chalice upgrades. For similar reasons, you can't stack them. This also helps sell item progression on things like Spellthief's Edge -> Frostfang -> Frost Queen's Claim.
So it's more for consistency's and theming's sake than strict game rules, since you couldn't stack them anyway.