Random name picker

A genuinely random draw

When you run a draw, the only thing that really matters is that it's fair: that every entrant has exactly the same chance of coming up and that the result can't be predicted or manipulated. This tool uses the browser's random number generator to choose, so neither you nor anyone else can tip the scales towards a particular name.

Why "picking by eye" doesn't work

People are terrible at generating randomness. Ask someone to pick a number from 1 to 10 "at random" and the 7 is far more likely than the 1 or the 10. The same happens when pointing at a name in a list: without meaning to, we tend to favour those at the start, at the end or the ones we recognise. An automatic draw removes that unconscious bias and spreads the odds evenly.

Pick one winner or shuffle the whole list

You don't always want a single winner. Sometimes you need to put every entrant in a random order (to decide turns, form pairs or set a speaking order) or draw several winners without any repeats. Shuffling the whole list at random handles those cases: each position is decided by chance, not by the order you typed the names in.

Being transparent with entrants

In a public draw (a giveaway on social media, a prize among customers) it helps if people can see it was clean. Running the draw live or explaining how the winner was chosen builds trust. The tool works in your browser, so the result depends only on the chance of the moment, not on anything stored in advance.