Why use this wheel
Paste a whole list at once
One name per line, or comma separated. Copy straight out of a spreadsheet, a chat thread or a sign-up sheet.
Nobody gets picked twice
Turn on Battle Duel and each name is removed once it comes up, so you can work through an entire group in order.
Give some names better odds
Set a weight per name when the draw isn't meant to be even — extra raffle entries, seniority, or a handicap.
Getting your names in
The slow part of any name picker is usually the typing, so this one is built to avoid it. Paste a column straight out of Excel or Google Sheets and each row becomes an option. Paste a comma-separated line and it splits on the commas. Paste a messy block copied out of a chat thread and blank lines and stray whitespace are stripped automatically.
Duplicates are removed by default, which is almost always what you want when a name appears twice in a sign-up sheet — but you can switch that off if a repeated name is deliberate and should genuinely have two chances.
Your list is saved in the browser as you go. Close the tab, come back tomorrow, and the same names are still loaded. Nothing is uploaded anywhere, so a class register or a list of colleagues never leaves the machine it was typed on.
Picking one name versus working through everyone
There are really two different jobs people bring to a name picker, and they need different modes. The first is a one-off: who presents next, who gets the last ticket, who has to make the call. Classic mode does that — one spin, one name, done.
The second is working through a whole group without anyone coming up twice. That is Battle Duel. Each name is removed from the wheel as it is drawn, so you can spin repeatedly and be certain everyone gets exactly one turn before anyone gets a second. Stand-up order, presentation order, calling on students, allocating tasks — all of these are the same problem, and eliminating as you go is the only way to solve it properly.
A common mistake is to use a plain random picker for the second job and re-spin whenever a repeat comes up. With ten names that is tolerable; with thirty it is genuinely tedious, and the odds of collisions are much higher than people expect.
When the draw shouldn't be even
Not every draw is meant to be fair in the equal-slices sense. Someone bought five raffle tickets. A senior member of the team should have more say. A player is being handicapped. Weights handle all of these: type a number next to a name, or use the name:5 shorthand when pasting, and that name's slice grows to match.
The wheel shows the real proportions, which matters more than it sounds. If someone has five times the odds, everyone watching can see that they occupy five times the wheel. There is no hidden multiplier to argue about afterwards.
How to use the random name picker
- 01
Paste the names in
A column copied from Excel or Google Sheets, a comma-separated line, or a messy block from a group chat all parse the same way — one name per slice, with blanks and duplicates cleaned up as they land.
- 02
Decide whether anyone can be picked twice
Leave it in Classic to draw one name and stop. Switch to Battle Duel if you are working through the whole group, and each name comes off the wheel as it is called.
- 03
Give a name better odds, if it has earned them
Write it as Sam:3 and Sam gets three entries' worth of slice. Useful for raffle tickets, seniority, or handicapping whoever won last time.
- 04
Spin and read the room
Space spins, F goes fullscreen for a projector. The name is announced in type large enough to read from the back, and lands in the history panel so you can prove who came up.
Frequently asked questions
How do I stop the same name being picked again?
Switch to Battle Duel mode. Every name the wheel lands on is removed from play, so repeat spins always draw from the names that haven't come up yet.
Can I paste names from Excel or Google Sheets?
Yes. Copy a column and paste it straight into the options box — one name per line is parsed automatically, as is a comma-separated list.
How many names can I add?
Hundreds. Past roughly forty the slices get too narrow to read comfortably, so the labels shrink and truncate, but the full name always appears in the result screen and in your history.
What happens to names with accents or non-Latin characters?
They work normally. Names are stored and displayed as you typed them, so accented characters, non-Latin scripts and emoji all render correctly on the wheel and in the result.
Can the same name appear twice on the wheel?
Only if you want it to. Duplicates are stripped when you paste, because a name that appears twice in a sign-up sheet is usually a mistake — switch that off in settings when a repeat is deliberate and the person genuinely should get two chances.
Do the names I type leave my computer?
No. A list of real people's names is exactly the sort of thing that shouldn't be uploaded to a stranger's server, so it isn't: options live in your browser's local storage and there is no account to sync them to.