Random Name Picker Wheel — Spin to Pick a Winner
Paste names, spin the wheel, get a fair random winner. Also splits a list into random groups.
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This random name picker is a spinning wheel for choosing a name, a winner or a turn order. Paste a list (one name per line, straight from a spreadsheet column works), press Spin, and the wheel slows down and stops on one name. Teachers use it for cold-calling and turn-taking, streamers for giveaways, teams for who presents first. It can remove each winner automatically so nobody is picked twice, and it keeps a history of every spin.
Fairness is handled before the animation starts. The winner is drawn with crypto.getRandomValues, the browser’s cryptographic random number generator, and the spin is then calculated to stop inside that winner’s slice, so the speed of your device, the easing curve or where the wheel started cannot tilt the odds. The second tab splits the same list into random groups, either a set number of groups or groups of a maximum size, with sizes that never differ by more than one. Nothing is sent to a server, so class lists stay on your computer.
How to use
- Type or paste names into the box, one per line. Blank lines are ignored.
- Choose options: remove the winner after each spin, tick sound on or off, colour theme and spin time. Turn on weights if some entries should be more likely.
- Press Spin (or click the wheel, or focus it and press Enter). The winner appears above the wheel and is added to the history.
- Press Fullscreen to show the wheel on a projector or stream; press Esc to leave.
- For teams, open Random group generator, choose a number of groups or a maximum group size, and press Make groups. Copy the result or download it as CSV.
Frequently asked questions
Is the wheel really random?
Yes. The winner is selected with crypto.getRandomValues, the same random source browsers use for encryption keys, using rejection sampling so there is no modulo bias. The animation is computed afterwards to land on that result, so it cannot change the outcome. Each name has exactly the same chance (or, with weights on, a chance proportional to its weight).
Can I stop the same person being picked twice?
Turn on “Remove winner after each spin”. The winner is shown for about two seconds and then removed from the list, so the next spin only includes people who have not been picked. Without that option you can still remove a winner with the Remove button that appears after each spin.
How do weights work?
Tick “Use weights” and add *n to the end of a line, for example “Maya *3”. That entry gets a slice three times wider and is three times as likely to win as an entry with weight 1. This is useful for raffles where people bought several tickets. The odds for each entry are shown under the wheel.
How does the random group generator split people?
It shuffles the list with a secure Fisher–Yates shuffle and deals names into groups one at a time, like dealing cards. “Number of groups” makes exactly that many groups. “People per group” makes the fewest groups that keep everyone at or under the size you set, so 10 people in groups of 4 becomes 4, 3 and 3 rather than 4, 4 and 2.
Are my names saved or uploaded?
No. The list exists only in this browser tab. Nothing is sent to a server or stored, and closing the tab clears it. Keep your list in a document or spreadsheet if you want to reuse it.
How many names can the wheel hold?
There is no fixed limit. Up to about 100 names every slice is labelled; with more, the thinnest slices hide their labels so the wheel stays readable, but they still count and can win, and the winner’s name is always shown in full above the wheel.
Why the winner is picked before the wheel spins
A wheel that picks its result by simulating physics (random starting speed, friction, wherever it stops) is fair only if the speed distribution is uniform over whole turns and the slowdown has no bias, which is hard to guarantee and impossible for a viewer to check. This picker separates the two jobs. First it draws a winner with a cryptographic random number. Then it works out the rotation that ends inside the winner’s slice, at a random point away from the slice edges, after several full turns, and animates to it with an ease-out curve. The result you see is the result that was drawn.
The same idea is why the history list is useful for disputes: each entry is a draw from the same uniform (or weighted) distribution, independent of the previous ones.
Classroom and stream uses
• Cold-calling without favourites: turn on “Remove winner” so everyone gets a turn before anyone gets two.
• Presentation order: spin with removal on and read the history from the bottom up.
• Giveaways: paste entrant names, use weights for multiple entries, and show the spin in fullscreen on stream.
• Group work: use the group generator for lab pairs, project teams or breakout rooms, then download the CSV for your LMS.
• Time the activity with the online timer, which also has a fullscreen view.
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