Yes, * just means "not the usual meaning", which is not very semantic, so I'd just as soon avoid it when possible unless the unstarred name is introduced in the same SRFI (and even then I don't like it much).
>> currying lambda which the author called lambda*; I'd be happy to call it
>> lambda/curry. Lambda/opt would also work for me.
lambda* is used by SRFI 89 (Optional positional and named parameters).
Some Schemes also ship with lambda* (at least Guile and S7); I don't
know whether or not those are compatible with SRFI 89.