ExxB. It is NOT true that there has ALWAYS been a requirement for ticket and reservation and passport names to match. As I've said, I am commonly know by my 2nd name. There was a time when a ticket issued in the name "Second Hartington" was fine.
An extreme example was an ex employer. He ran a number of companies including the travel agency I worked for. He had been commuting back and forth to Paris for several months with various members of staff from his other companies, sometimes by car and other times by air, and one day there were five of them all trying to get back to London. Over the weeks several people had flown out and returned by car so he had several tickets in various names in his pocket. He simply gave each person a ticket and, if memory serves, the only one that matched the person was his own. They all got home with no problem at all.
Mind you, that was all over 30 years ago!