Random Name Picker

How to use the random name picker

The wheel above already has a sample list on it. Replace it with your own and you are ready to go.

1. Clear the sample names and type or paste your list into the Names box. One name per line.
2. Check the count under the box — it should match the number of people you expect.
3. Press Pick a name, click the wheel, or tap the hub in the middle.
4. The winner appears when the wheel stops, along with the exact probability that name had.

Pasting works the way you would expect. Copy a column out of a spreadsheet, a roster out of a document or a list of comments, and every line becomes one slice.

Not just names: any list works

The wheel does not care what the lines say. Paste tasks, book titles, recipes, podcast episodes, chores, exercises, board games or questions to ask, and each line becomes a slice exactly as a name would. The box is labeled Names because that is the most common list, but nothing on the page treats a name differently from any other line.

Some lists already have a better home. A short set of options you are weighing up reads more naturally on the decision wheel, and the templates come with lists already written for food, games, chores and more. For everything else, this is the general-purpose wheel.

Pick without repeats, or work through a whole list

Most of the time you do not want the same person twice. Turn on Remove the winner after each spin in the wheel options and each name comes off the wheel as soon as it is drawn.

That gives you a running order rather than a single pick: spin, read the name, spin again, and keep going until the wheel is empty. The Results panel keeps the full sequence, and Copy exports it as a table with each pick's probability and time.

The same setting turns any list into a random order you work through one item at a time:

• A to-do list in an order you did not choose, so the easy task does not always go first
• A reading list, or a backlog of small jobs spread over a week
• A set of questions asked in shuffled order

If you want the whole list in random order at once rather than one spin at a time, Shuffle under the list box reorders it in place.

If you would rather keep everybody in play — a name that can win twice in a row — leave the option off. Both behaviours are genuinely random; they answer different questions.

There is a longer explanation of the difference in our guide to random selection without replacement.

Weighted names

Sometimes the entries are not supposed to be equal. Someone holds five raffle tickets, or a student has not been picked in three weeks and you want to nudge the odds.

Turn on Weighted choices and add an asterisk with a number after any name:

Maria *3
Daniel Priya *2 Chen

Maria now takes three slices, Priya two, and everyone else one. The strip under the wheel switches from "1 in n" to the total weight, and the result window tells you the real probability the winner had. Nothing is hidden.

How weighted random picking works →

What people use the name wheel for

• Raffles and giveaways. Paste the entrant list, spin on camera, read out the winner. For multi-prize draws, the giveaway winner picker adds a winners log you can export.
• Classrooms. Cold-calling is fairer when everyone can see the wheel. The random student picker is the same idea with class rosters and a no-repeat default.
• Meetings and standups. Who demos first, who takes notes, who runs retro.
• Games. Settling turn order without an argument. See who goes first.
• Teams. If you need groups rather than one name, use the random team generator instead — it deals everyone out at once.

Is the name picker actually fair?

Yes, and you can check it.

The winner is drawn before the animation starts, using crypto.getRandomValues() — your browser's cryptographic random number generator. The spin is then aimed at the name that already won. Nothing about the animation, the order of your list, the colours or how long you hold the button changes the outcome.

Every result window has a How this result was picked link. Open it and you get the raw 32-bit number that was drawn, the threshold used to strip out modulo bias, how many draws were discarded, and the arithmetic that turned that number into a slice. You can redo that arithmetic by hand.

Read how Wheel Cue randomness works →