Random Name Picker

How to use the random name picker

Type or paste your names into the box with one name on each line. A column copied from a spreadsheet works as it is. A name can have several words, so first names, full names and nicknames are all fine, and spaces inside a name are kept exactly as you typed them.

Leave Number of names to pick at 1 for a single winner, then press Pick a Random Name. Surrounding spaces and empty lines are ignored. The box takes lists of up to 10,000 names.

The draw runs in your browser. Pressing the button also writes your inputs into the page address so the link can be shared; opening such a link fills the form again and makes a brand-new draw, so it never reproduces an earlier result.

Drawing more than one name

Raise the number of names to pick to draw a whole group in one go, up to 1,000 at a time. The names come out without replacement: once a name has been drawn it is out of the pool, so nobody appears twice. The result lists them in the order they were drawn, which makes it easy to hand out first, second and third prize.

The number you ask for must be smaller than the number of names in the list. Asking for 5 names from a list of 3, or for as many names as the list holds, returns an error. If you really want to reorder everyone, use the list randomizer instead.

chance a given name is among k picks from n names = k ÷ n

Example: a raffle has 40 entrants and 3 prizes, so you draw 3 names. Each entrant has a 3 ÷ 40 = 7.5% chance of winning something, and there are 40 × 39 × 38 ÷ 6 = 9,880 different groups of three winners, all equally likely. If one person appears on two lines they have two entries and double the chance, which is useful for tickets but a mistake if it was an accident.

Is the pick really random?

Yes, in the sense that matters for a fair draw. The picker numbers your names, then repeatedly chooses a position using the browser's cryptographic random number source (crypto.getRandomValues) and swaps the chosen name to the front of the pool. This is a partial form of the Fisher-Yates shuffle in Durstenfeld's formulation. Random numbers that would fall in an uneven slice of the generator's range are thrown away, so no name is favoured by rounding.

That makes every name exactly as likely as every other on each draw. It does not make a short run of draws look balanced: with 4 names, the same one can easily come up twice in a row, and that is normal for independent random picks.

Running a draw people can trust

• Agree the rules before drawing: how many winners, whether past winners can win again, and what happens if a winner cannot be reached.
• Show the final list to the group first. Anyone can then confirm their name is on it exactly once.
• Draw in front of the participants, or record your screen, and do not redraw unless the rules said you would.
• When winners must be unique but you draw one at a time, delete each winner's line before the next press. Drawing several names at once in a single pick avoids this chore.

Everyday uses

Common uses are charity raffles, social media giveaways, choosing which student answers next, deciding who presents first in a meeting, and assigning one-off chores. For splitting everyone into groups rather than choosing individuals, the random team generator deals the whole list out to teams. For picking from things that are not names, such as prizes or restaurants, use the random picker, or try the random choice generator for another way to decide between options.