Even LIKE can use an index in SQL. It depends on the wildcard.

Code
-- tested with MySQL 5.6

-- index is used for accessing entries starting with "ba"
EXPLAIN
SELECT * FROM history
  WHERE name LIKE 'ba%' LIMIT 10;

-- index is used for accessing entries starting with "b". Get entries ending with "r" by filtering the "b" results
EXPLAIN
SELECT * FROM history
  WHERE name LIKE 'b%r' LIMIT 10;

-- no index used
EXPLAIN
SELECT * FROM history
  WHERE name LIKE '%ar' LIMIT 10;
Result
idselect_typetablepartitionstypepossible_keyskeykey_lenrefrowsfilteredExtra
1SIMPLEhistorynullrangename_timestamp_idx,name_status_idxname_timestamp_idx767null402100Using index condition


idselect_typetablepartitionstypepossible_keyskeykey_lenrefrowsfilteredExtra
1SIMPLEhistorynullrangename_timestamp_idx,name_status_idxname_timestamp_idx767null603100Using index condition


idselect_typetablepartitionstypepossible_keyskeykey_lenrefrowsfilteredExtra
1SIMPLEhistorynullALLnullnullnullnull140711.11Using where