Random name picker
Paste a list, pick a winner. No account, no cloud, no limit.
Put one name per line and press Pick one. Use it to choose who answers next, who goes first, or who wins the giveaway. Picking uses your browser cryptographic random source, not a shuffled array, so every name genuinely has the same chance.
Runs entirely in your browser. Your text is never uploaded — open DevTools, Network tab, and you will see zero requests while you use this tool.
How to use it
- Paste your list, one name per line.
- Press Pick one for a single winner, or Pick without repeats to work through the whole list.
- Press Split into teams to divide the list into equal groups.
What this tool does
Three different jobs live here, and they solve different problems.
Pick one chooses a single line at random and shows it. Nothing else changes, so you can press it again and again — the same name can come up twice, exactly like drawing from a hat and putting the slip back.
Pick without repeats removes the chosen name from the list as it goes. Press it repeatedly and you work through everybody exactly once, in a random order. This is what teachers actually need for cold calling, and it is the thing most wheel sites make you do by hand.
Split into teams shuffles the list and deals it into groups of roughly equal size, like dealing cards. Type the number of teams when asked. It is the fastest way to break a class or an office into groups without arguments about who chose whom.
Examples
| List | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Anna Ben Chloe Dan | Pick one | Chloe |
| Anna Ben Chloe Dan | Pick without repeats, pressed 4 times | Dan, then Anna, then Chloe, then Ben — each once |
| 8 names | Split into teams (3) | Team 1: 3 names Team 2: 3 names Team 3: 2 names |
When you need it
- Cold calling in class. Pick without repeats means every student gets asked once before anyone is asked twice — which is the whole point, and what a plain wheel gets wrong.
- Giveaways. Paste the entrants, press pick, screen-record it. Nobody has to trust a server.
- Group work. Split into teams removes the social pain of captains choosing players.
- Chores, standups, code review. Anything where somebody has to go first and nobody wants to decide.
- Deciding between options. Put the options in instead of names — dinner, film, holiday destination.
Is it really random?
Yes, and the distinction matters. The picker uses crypto.getRandomValues(), the browser cryptographic random number source, not Math.random(). It also rejects values that would fall outside an exact multiple of the list length instead of taking a remainder — without that step, the first few names in a list get picked very slightly more often. The bias is tiny, but it is real, and removing it costs nothing.
What this does not mean: the tool cannot prove to a third party that you did not simply press again until you liked the answer. For a prize draw where that matters, record the screen or use a witness.
Doing it without this tool
Excel or Google Sheets. Put names in column A, put =RAND() in column B, sort by column B and take the top row. To split into teams, number the sorted rows 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 with =MOD(ROW()-1,3)+1.
Python. import random; random.choice(names) for one, random.shuffle(names) for the whole order.
Paper. Still undefeated for prize draws in a room full of people — the point is that everybody can see it.
The advantage here is speed and the no-repeat mode: no formulas, no re-sorting, nothing to set up.
Privacy: your list never leaves your browser
The names, options and text you put in stay on your device. Nothing is uploaded, no account is needed and no list is stored on a server. That matters more here than it looks: a class register, a team roster or a list of customers is personal data, and most wheel sites ask you to sign in and keep your lists in their cloud. Open your browser network panel while you spin — you will see no requests.
Related tools
Frequently asked questions
With Pick one, yes — every press is an independent draw. Use Pick without repeats if you want each name to come up exactly once.
No. The list lives in your browser, so the only limit is your device memory. Thousands of lines are fine.
No, and there is nothing to save to. Your list is never sent anywhere, which also means you should keep your own copy if you need it tomorrow.
Yes. The draw is cryptographically random. For a public draw, record your screen so entrants can see the result was not repeated until somebody won.
It deals names out one at a time, so teams differ by at most one person. Seven names into three teams gives 3, 2 and 2.
Once the page has loaded, yes. Nothing about picking a name needs the network.
No, empty lines are ignored so stray line breaks do not become invisible entrants.