Random Name Picker

Drawing without replacement, and what the order means

Ask for three winners and the picker does what a hat full of paper slips does: it draws one name from everyone, then one from everyone left, then one from everyone left after that. No name can appear twice in a draw, and the order is part of the result — the first name drawn is the first winner, the next is second, and so on. That makes a single draw of one winner and two reserves a fair way to settle alternates in advance: the reserves were chosen by the same process at the same moment, not by a second draw held after the first winner failed to reply.

Every ordering is equally likely. A name's chance of being among k winners from a list of n is exactly k ÷ n, so three winners from 120 entrants gives each entrant a 2.5% chance, and its chance of being drawn first is 1 ÷ n.

With 'Leave out names already picked' on, each further draw continues from the same hat: winners stay out until you press Reset winners, and the running list of everyone picked so far is shown in order. Turn it off and every draw starts from the whole list again, so a name can come up in more than one draw — right for a daily prize where yesterday's winner may win again.

Calling on students fairly

Random calling keeps a whole room ready to answer, because nobody can predict who is next. A purely random draw, though, means some students are asked three times in a lesson and others never. Leaving out names already picked gives you both properties: the order stays unpredictable, and everyone gets a turn before anyone has a second one. Reset the winners at the start of each lesson.

Your class list is saved in this browser, so it is there next lesson without retyping. It is stored only on this computer and never uploaded, which matters when the list is children's names and your school has rules about where pupil data may go. For the drama of a spinning wheel on single picks, the spin the wheel tool uses the same random draw.

Picking giveaway winners in a way people trust

Collect the eligible entrants into one list — export the comments, form responses or ticket numbers, then paste them in. Most platforms let one person enter several times, so decide in advance whether that counts. If the rules say one entry per person, tick 'Count repeated names once'. Names count as repeats when they match ignoring capital letters and extra spaces, and the picker tells you how many repeats it found, so your announcement can state how many unique entrants there were.

Draw every winner and reserve in a single draw, on screen or on a recording. The results are numbered in draw order, and Copy gives you that list as plain text for the announcement. If a winner does not respond within the time your rules allow, go to the next reserve in order rather than drawing again. Prize promotions are regulated in many countries and on most social platforms, so check those rules as well: this tool makes the draw fair, not the promotion lawful.

Duplicates, late edits and edge cases

Two identical lines are two entries unless you merge repeats. That is deliberate: a class can have two students called Sam, and both deserve a chance. When merging, 'anna lee' and 'Anna Lee' count as the same person.

You can edit the list mid-session — add a late arrival, remove someone who left — and earlier winners stay excluded, because each entry is tracked by its name and by which occurrence of that name it is. The list holds up to 5,000 names. Asking for more winners than there are names left gives a clear message instead of a short list, and when everyone has been picked the picker says so.

How the names are chosen

Each pick is an unbiased draw from your browser's cryptographic generator, crypto.getRandomValues, with rejection sampling so that no position in the list is even fractionally favoured. It is not Math.random, whose output can in principle be predicted from earlier outputs. The flicker of names before each winner settles is decoration: the winners are fixed the instant you press the button, and the order you see them appear is the order they were drawn.