Random Name Picker Wheel

Paste your names, one per line, and spin: the random name picker lands on one of them, or draws several at once if you set Pick higher. Picked names are removed from the list by default, so a class of thirty is called on exactly once each before the wheel runs out.

How to use the random name picker

1. Replace the example names in the Entries box with your own, one per line. Paste a whole column from a spreadsheet if you have one.
2. Press Tidy if the paste brought row numbers, bullets or blank lines with it. Duplicates are removed at the same time.
3. Set Pick to how many names you want per spin. Leave it at 1 for one name, or go up to 20 to draw a whole group in one go.
4. Spin by clicking the wheel, pressing the Spin button, or hitting Ctrl + Enter. The result window lists everyone drawn.
5. Close the result and the picked names leave the list, because Remove winner after each spin is on. Turn it off if you want names to stay in the draw.

The page starts with twenty example names so you can try it before pasting your own. Everything else, from spin time to sound, works like the main wheel spinner; the differences on this page are the Pick field, the larger list box, and the fact that winners are removed by default.

Paste a class list or a spreadsheet column

Lists rarely arrive clean. A register copied from a spreadsheet brings row numbers, a list from a chat brings bullets and blank lines, and a signup form brings the same person twice because they signed up on two devices. Paste it anyway and press Tidy.

Tidy strips leading numbering and bullet characters, trims the spaces around each name, drops empty lines, and removes duplicates while ignoring case, so "beatriz" and "Beatriz" count as the same person and the first spelling is kept. It does not touch the order of the names, so if the roster was alphabetical it stays alphabetical. Press Shuffle if you would rather the wheel not reveal who is first on the register, or Sort A–Z to put it back.

Names with spaces are fine; each line is one entry, however many words it holds. If two students share a first name, add an initial on the line so the result window is unambiguous. Up to 64 names are written on the slices; past that the slices are too thin to label and the name shows only in the result, and past 200 the wheel becomes a rolling picker that flicks through the list with exactly the same odds.

Pick several names at once

Set Pick to any number from 1 to 20 and one spin draws that many names. The wheel itself lands on the first; the others are drawn from the names left over, each one removed from the pool before the next draw, so no name can appear twice in the same result. The result window lists all of them, and each goes on its own line in the Results tab.

This is the quick way to fill a presenting order, choose three volunteers, or draw first, second and third prize in one go. Weights carry over to the extra draws as well: a name marked Priya*3 is three times as likely to be the wheel's pick and three times as likely to be drawn from the leftover pool. The order in the result is the order drawn, so if first place matters, the name at the top is the one the wheel actually stopped on and the rest follow in sequence.

Pick is capped at the number of names on the list, so a list of five with Pick set to 20 draws five. If you want everybody in a random order rather than a random few, set Pick to the list length and spin once; the Results tab then holds the whole list shuffled, ready to copy. For splitting people into even groups rather than ranking them, the random team generator does that directly.

No repeats: call on everyone once

Remove winner after each spin is on by default here because that is what a name picker is usually for. Each time you close the result window the picked names are deleted from the Entries box, the wheel redraws with fewer slices, and the odds for everyone left go up accordingly. When the list is down to one name the wheel stops and asks for at least two entries; that last person is your final pick.

If you would rather keep the full list on the wheel, switch the toggle off in the panel. The setting is remembered in your browser and shared with the other wheels on this site, so if you turn it off here it will be off on the main wheel too until you turn it back on. You can still remove a single name by hand with Remove this entry in the result window.

The Results tab doubles as the record of who has been called. Every name the wheel picked this session is listed there, newest first, so when a student says they have already answered twice you can check rather than argue. With Remove winner on, a name can only appear once per pass through the list, which settles the question before it is asked.

For a class you see every week, that is the routine: load the saved roster, spin until the list is empty, load it again next time. The spinner wheel for the classroom page has ten more ways to use the same list, from reading order to which group presents first.

Running a giveaway or raffle with a name wheel

A name wheel makes a better giveaway draw than a hidden script because the audience watches it happen. Paste the entrants, press Tidy to remove anyone who entered twice, and press Full screen so only the wheel is on screen. Spin once and the winner is announced by the pointer, not by you.

Send the Share link before the draw. It carries the full list inside the URL, nothing goes through a server, and anyone who opens it sees the same wheel you are about to spin. Then the question "was my name actually on there?" answers itself. For several prizes set Pick to the number of winners and draw them in one spin; the order drawn is the order of prizes.

If some entrants earned extra entries, append an asterisk and a number to their line, for example Priya*3, and their slice grows to three shares of the wheel. The weighting works the same way on every wheel here and is explained on the home page, so this is just a reminder that it works for raffles too.

Save the roster and share the wheel

Save wheel stores the current list under a name in your browser, up to 50 per tool, and the Saved tab lets you load or delete any of them. Save the roster for each class or team you run, and loading one takes one click. The lists never leave your device, which also means they do not follow you to another computer; use Share link for that.

Share link puts the whole list into the address of this page, after the hash, so sending it to a colleague or a co-host gives them exactly your wheel without an account. Open it on the classroom computer, bookmark it, or paste it into the lesson plan. If you later edit the list, make a new link; the old one keeps the old names.

When you are done, the Results tab has every name the wheel picked this session in order, newest at the top. Press Copy to put them on the clipboard one per line and paste them wherever the record needs to go. For an open list of anything other than names, from dinner options to game forfeits, the main wheel spinner is the same wheel without the roster tools.