grep matches exact string or with wildcard

Question

I want to search the content of a file that could contain for example:

name1
name2
name3
...
...
name10
name11
...
...

the search should match the string if it doesn't have a wildcard (*). for example :

grep -w name1 filename

it returns exactly what I want:

file1   #ignores file10 & file11 as no wildcard used

but when I use the same command but with wildcard (*), as follows:

grep -w name1* filename

it also returns file1 only. without file10 and file11. How can I match the string exactly as the first case and when a (*) is used it should include the others?

Note: I have seen some answers suggested using .* instead of * it worked but for my application the input is coming always in the form of * not .*

thank you in advance.