The given solution (create an indexed UPPER(name) column) is not the best way to solve this, at least not on MS SQL Server. Not sure if this is equally supported in other databases, but the better solution is to create a case-insensitive computed column:

  ALTER TABLE example ADD name_ci AS name COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CI_AS;

It depends on the database system, but for systems that support functional indexes, you can create an index using the same function expression that you use in the query, and the query optimizer will recognize that they match up and use the index.

For example, you define an index on UPPER(name_column), and in your query you can use WHERE UPPER(name_to_search_for) = UPPER(name_column), and it will use the index.