Wheel of names
A wheel of names picks a person the way flipping a coin picks a side: in the open, where everyone can watch it land. Paste your list, one name per line, spin, and take the winner off before the next round so nobody is drawn twice. It is free, needs no account, and keeps your lists in your browser.
Also known as: random name picker, name picker wheel, name spinner, picker wheel for names, raffle wheel.
Free. No account needed. Export a PNG.
Not picking names?
The same wheel settles any decision you can type as a list: dinner, the next movie, which task to start. The general page covers weights, palettes and the spin settings in full: spin the wheel.
How to make a wheel of names
- Paste your names. Switch the entries panel to text mode and paste the whole class, team or entry list in one go, one name per line. Rows you already colored or weighted keep their settings when you edit the text again.
- Set the no-repeat rule. Turn on remove-after-spin and each winner leaves the wheel automatically, so every spin draws from the people who have not had a turn. Prefer to decide case by case? Leave it off; the result dialog still has a remove button.
- Spin in front of everyone. Go fullscreen so the whole room can see it, then click the wheel or press space. The draw itself is a cryptographic random number, and the wheel simply lands where the number says, so watching it is the audit.
- Keep the record. Every name drawn goes into the results list with a time next to it. That is your register of who answered, who won and in what order, and one button clears it for the next session.
What you can do
- Paste a whole list of names at once, one per line.
- Every draw is a fresh cryptographic random number: no pattern, no bias.
- Remove each winner automatically so nobody is picked twice.
- A no-repeat guard that skips past winners even when they stay on the wheel.
- Hide someone who is absent today without deleting them from the list.
- Results history with times: your record of who was drawn and when.
- Fullscreen mode built for projectors and shared screens.
- Names save in your browser, so the same class list is there tomorrow.
- Optional account library to open the same lists on another device.
Make your own wheel of names
Cold-calling students, fairly
Every hand-picked question invites the "why me" complaint. A wheel with the class on it answers that before it is asked, and remove-after-spin guarantees the quiet corner gets called exactly as often as the front row.
Raffle and giveaway draws
Paste the entrants, spin on camera, and the winner needs no defending: the draw is uniform, the animation just delivers it. Spin again with winners removed for second and third prize.
Who presents first
Standups, project demos, book club: the order argument dies the moment the wheel decides it. Keep the results list open and the running order writes itself.
Chores and turns at home
Put the household on the wheel and let it assign the dishes. Hide whoever is away tonight rather than deleting them; they are back on the wheel with one tap tomorrow.
Team pairings and secret assignments
Draw names one by one to build pairs or an order nobody chose. Because each removal is visible on the wheel itself, the whole room can verify that no name was drawn twice.
Common questions
How do I stop the same name winning twice?
Two layers. Remove-after-spin takes each winner off the wheel the moment they are drawn, which everyone can see. Separately, switching off "allow the same entry to win twice" makes the draw skip anyone already in the results list even if their slice is still visible. Use the first for transparency, the second as a safety net, or both.
Is the pick actually fair?
Yes. The winner is drawn with the cryptographic random generator built into your browser, uniformly across the names (or by weight, if you set weights). The spin animation is computed after the draw, to land on the drawn name, so nothing about the spin length or speed can favour anyone.
Can I keep my class lists for next time?
They keep themselves: the wheel autosaves in your browser as you type, and reopening the tool tomorrow on the same browser brings the same lists back. Sign in and your wheels also live in an account library you can open from the classroom machine and your laptop alike.
What about a student who is absent?
Hide them instead of deleting them. A hidden name stays in your list, greyed out, but leaves the wheel and the draw. One tap brings them back when they are, and the rest of the list never has to be retyped.
How many names fit on the wheel?
As many as you paste; there is no fixed limit. Labels shrink as slices get thinner, so past a hundred or so names the wheel reads better in fullscreen. The fairness of the draw does not change with the count.
Do the people on the wheel need accounts? Do I?
Nobody needs an account. The names on the wheel are just text you typed; they are not users, and the list is never published anywhere. You only sign in if you want your own wheels to follow you to another device.