Random Name Picker - Pick Winners & Raffle Names Online

How to use this tool

1. Enter names. Type or paste one name per line in the text area.
2. Set options. Choose how many names to pick, whether duplicates are allowed, and whether to use raffle mode.
3. Click Pick. Hit the Pick button to randomly select names from your list.
4. Review or reset. See the result and history below. In raffle mode, reset the pool to restore all names.

What is a Random Name Picker?

A random name picker selects one or more names from a list using a fair, unbiased algorithm. Common uses include choosing a raffle winner, picking a student to answer a question, selecting a giveaway recipient, assigning random roles, or making any decision that requires a neutral party.

Raffle mode

Enable Raffle mode to remove each picked list line, or ticket slot, from the pool. Duplicate lines count as separate tickets, so the same visible name can be drawn more than once if it appears on multiple lines. When the pool is empty, click Reset pool to restore the current list.

Unique picks vs. allow duplicates

In the default (unique) mode, each list line or slot can be picked at most once in a single draw. If the same visible name appears on multiple lines, it can still appear more than once because each line is a separate entry. In Allow duplicates mode, each pick is independent and a line can be selected again, like rolling a die multiple times.

How random is it?

For lists with more than one slot, random index choices use crypto.getRandomValues(), the browser's cryptographically secure random number generator. Rejection sampling discards values in the uneven tail before mapping to a slot, avoiding modulo bias for pool sizes such as three. No names are sent to a server.

Use case examples

Weighted picking

Standard random picking treats every name equally (uniform probability). Some use cases benefit from weighted picking, where some names have higher probability of being selected. For example, in a raffle where tickets were sold, a person with 5 tickets should be 5× more likely to be selected than someone with 1 ticket.

To simulate weighted picking with this tool, add a name to the list multiple times - one entry per ticket. With Allow duplicates enabled, entering "Alice" three times and "Bob" once gives Alice a 75% chance on each pick.

Unique draws and raffle mode also treat duplicate lines as separate slots, but draw without replacement. Later pick probabilities change as slots are drawn. For example, a two-pick raffle can show "Alice" twice when it draws two of three Alice lines; both selected ticket slots are then removed, leaving one Alice line and Bob in the pool.