Random name picker

Pick one or several winners from a list of names

This random name picker draws one or more winners from the names you give it. Paste the list, say how many winners and backups you need, and the result appears with the date, the time and the number of participants. There is no account to create.

People use it for a social media giveaway (copy the list of commenters or sign-ups), a charity raffle, a prize draw run by a shop, a school fair or an office sweepstake. It also settles small everyday questions: which pupil answers next, which colleague takes the minutes, who gets which prize, or who presents first.

How to run a draw

1. In the "Participants, one per line" box, paste or type the names. Empty lines are ignored and the counter shows how many participants are in the draw. The list takes up to 5,000 names.
2. Leave "Remove duplicates" ticked so that a name entered several times counts once. The comparison ignores capital letters and extra spaces, and the number of duplicates removed is shown next to the counter.
3. Set the "Number of winners" (1 to 100) and the "Number of backups" (0 to 20).
4. Click "Draw" or press the space bar. The names scroll for a second and a half, then the winners appear, numbered, with the backups in a separate list.
5. "Copy the result" puts the date, the number of participants, the winners and the backups on your clipboard. "New draw" runs another draw with the current list.

Tick "Remove winners from the list after the draw" when you hand out prizes one at a time: each winner leaves the list and cannot be picked again.

The same odds for every line

Names are drawn without replacement: within one draw, a name can win only once, and a winner cannot also be a backup. The tool shuffles the list with the Fisher-Yates method, fed by the browser's cryptographic random generator, then reads the first names. Every line has exactly the same chance.

An example: with 400 entries and 2 winners, each entry has 2 chances in 400 of winning, or 0.5%. Watch out for duplicates: in a list of 50 lines where one name appears twice, that name has a 4% chance of being drawn first, against 2% for the others, if you untick "Remove duplicates". That is what you want when someone bought two raffle tickets, and what you want to avoid when the rule is one entry per person.

A draw nobody argues with

• Draw live, or record your screen with the list visible, from the click on the button to the result.
• Keep the list of participants and the dated result: a screenshot or the copied text is enough.
• Plan for backups, in the order shown, in case a winner does not reply or does not meet the conditions.

A prize draw open to the public must follow the rules of the country and of the platform that hosts it. The tool picks winners at random: it does not replace written terms and conditions, or an independent official such as a notary where one is required.

The site also has a random wheel and a team generator, for a more visual draw or for splitting a group.

Frequently asked questions

Is my list sent anywhere?

No. The draw is worked out in your browser and the list is kept on your device, so you find it again on your next visit. "Clear the list" deletes it.

Can the same name win twice?

Not within one draw. Across two draws it can, unless you tick "Remove winners from the list after the draw".

How do I pick a winner from the comments on a post?

Copy the list of usernames from the platform or from an export, then paste it with one username per line. Leave "Remove duplicates" ticked if each person gets a single chance, however many comments they left.

What if a winner never claims the prize?

Move on to the first backup, then the next. Set the number of backups before the draw: they are drawn at the same time as the winners.