You have a couple different options depending upon the exact UX/UI you wish to provide.
First, if you know that the list you want to filter by is a smaller, more manageable set, you could create a custom list filter to only identify the entries you want included.
If that’s still too many entries, you could implement a text box as the filter field to enter the name to filter on. See the thread (and the referenced link) at foreign key daterange filtering in admin. The thread’s not an exact match, but the link in my response should be close to what you may want.