Random name picker
- 50 tools
- No watermark
- No daily limit
Paste a list of names and pick winners, split it into teams, put it in a random order, pair people up or run a gift exchange where nobody draws themselves. All five are the same seeded shuffle read differently, which is why they share one page. Every result comes with a seed, so a draw with anything at stake can be checked by the people it affects rather than taken on trust, and the names never leave this tab.
One name per line. Choose what to do with them and press the button.
The names
What to do
Announce a seed before you draw and anybody can put it in here afterwards, with the same list, and get the same result.
Frequently asked questions
Are the names uploaded?
No. They stay in this tab. The site’s security policy sets connect-src ‘none’, so the browser blocks network requests from these pages, so nothing could be sent even if the code tried. A list of staff, customers or competition entrants is personal data, and pasting one into a website to run a draw is exactly what a privacy policy is meant to prevent.
How does the seed prove anything?
Announce it before you draw and publish the list. Afterwards anybody can paste the same list here in the same order, put the seed in, and get the same winners. If they get different ones, the list changed between the announcement and the draw. The copy button includes a SHA-256 fingerprint of the list, which pins down exactly which list was used.
Why does it show reserves I did not ask for?
Because "who was next" is the first question asked when a winner does not reply, and a draw that has to be run again to answer it is a draw somebody will keep running until they like the answer. The next five are shown so the whole running order is fixed at the moment of the draw.
How are teams made even?
The remainder is spread one per team from the front, so thirteen people in four teams is 4, 3, 3, 3. Never 4, 4, 4, 1. Names are dealt round-robin from a shuffled list, so being early in your list gives nobody an advantage.
In the gift exchange, can two people draw each other?
No, and that is deliberate. Everyone is arranged in one ring, so each person gives to the next and receives from the previous. That guarantees nobody draws themselves and nobody is in a mutual pair, which is usually what an office exchange wants. It is also why the method is a ring rather than a draw-and-retry: retrying can take a long time on a small list, and the obvious fix of swapping when somebody draws themselves is not actually fair.
What about names that appear twice?
They count twice unless you tick the box. Two people can have the same name, and quietly merging them halves somebody's chance without telling anyone. The tick box is there for when the duplicate really is a duplicate.