It is not that easy to do a name change on an airline ticket, they are non-transferable. This is on published rate tickets, purchased by an individual. Only the person who is traveling can even get info regarding the reservation and do any type of changes (like change of date). The person who is traveling can try and sometimes (almost never) be able to get the name change but they need to have a great reason and someone at the airline willing to take that chance.
With that said, if this was a group ticket then the person who made the reservation (travel agent, group leader etc.) would be the person who would make that change. On Group tickets, names changes could be permitted. All persons traveling are on one PNR with one record locator. The Group would also be names, for example this group might have been PPL Cancun.
In either case, the reservation PNR would be dully noted and very easy to track.