Random Name Picker FAQ

WheelieNames is a free online random name picker and spinning wheel that lets you paste a list of names, spin, and get a fair random winner in seconds. Teachers use it to call on students, creators use it to pick giveaway winners, and teams use it to make unbiased decisions.

Open wheelienames.com, type or paste each name on its own line in the entries box, and click Spin. No account, no download, no email. Your list saves automatically to your browser so it is still there next time you visit on the same device.

WheelieNames is 100% free with no paywall, no trial limits, and no forced account creation. Every feature — unlimited spins, sound, remove-after-spin, spin history, sharing — is available to everyone. The project stays free because it runs on lightweight infrastructure and does not sell user data.

No. WheelieNames runs entirely in your browser, so there is nothing to install on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, ChromeOS, or Linux. Bookmark the page or add it to your phone home screen for one-tap access during class or a live stream.

Copy the names from your spreadsheet, Google Classroom roster, or comment thread and paste them directly into the entries field. WheelieNames automatically splits on new lines and commas, removes blank rows, and rebuilds the wheel. Lists up to a few hundred entries work smoothly on most devices.

Yes — use the share button to generate a link that encodes your current list. Anyone opening the link sees the same entries on their device. This is especially useful for remote classes, Zoom meetings, and proving to giveaway entrants that the wheel contained their name.

WheelieNames is truly random. It calls the browser Web Crypto API (crypto.getRandomValues), the same cryptographic source used for HTTPS keys and secure tokens. Every entry on the wheel has an exactly equal probability of being selected on every spin — there is no weighting, no house favorite, and no server-side override.

Plain Math.random() is fast but predictable and can cluster in noticeable patterns, which is why casinos and auditors reject it. A CSPRNG (cryptographically secure PRNG) passes statistical tests for uniformity and unpredictability, so across thousands of spins each name is hit the fair share of times you would expect from a coin-flip-style process.

True randomness includes streaks. On a 10-name wheel, back-to-back repeats happen roughly 1 in 10 spins, and three in a row about 1 in 100. That feels "rigged" but is mathematically expected. If you want no repeats, enable Remove Winner After Spin so each name is taken off the wheel once chosen.

This is called clustering illusion — humans are wired to see patterns in noise. Over 20 spins you will remember the three times your name came up in a row and forget the ten in between. Run a test: spin 200 times with two names and the split will land within a few percent of 50/50.

Screen-record the full spin from the entries list to the winner reveal, then post the unedited video. Entrants can see their name on the wheel, watch the spin physics, and verify the result was not edited in. For high-value prizes, use the share link so a third party can replay the same wheel.

No, and that is intentional. A seeded wheel would let anyone who knows the seed predict the winner, which would break trust for classrooms and giveaways. If you need deterministic selection for research or testing, use a dedicated PRNG library rather than a public wheel tool.

Yes, with a simple trick: add the favored name multiple times. Adding "Alex" three times and "Sam" once gives Alex a 75% chance. This is the same way raffle tickets work — one entry per ticket — and it keeps the underlying math transparent to everyone watching.

In most jurisdictions, yes — as long as the draw is conducted fairly, entrants are not charged to enter, and the rules are published in advance. WheelieNames satisfies the fairness requirement, but prize-draw law varies by country and state. For large promotions, check local regulations or consult a lawyer before running the draw.

Paste your class roster into WheelieNames once at the start of the year and spin whenever you need a volunteer. Because selection is cryptographically random, no student can accuse you of favoritism, and shy students get called on as often as the confident ones. Save the roster as a browser bookmark for one-click access.

Turn on Remove Winner After Spin. The picked student is removed from the wheel, so the next spin can only land on someone who has not gone yet. Once the wheel is empty, click Reset to bring everyone back for the next round. This is the fairest way to distribute speaking turns in a lesson.

Spin repeatedly with Remove Winner After Spin enabled and assign the first four winners to Group 1, next four to Group 2, and so on. For a 24-student class you will have six groups in under a minute. This prevents friend-clustering and builds cross-group collaboration over the semester.

Load the full class list, enable Remove Winner After Spin, and spin once per presentation slot. Write the order on the board as the wheel reveals each name. Students accept this order as fair because they watched the wheel pick it live, which reduces complaints about "going last."

Yes — share your browser tab or full screen and the wheel animates live for every student. Because it runs in the browser with no plugin, students on Chromebooks, iPads, and locked-down school devices can all see it. For hybrid classes, the share link lets in-person and remote students watch the same draw.

WheelieNames stores your list only in the browser local storage on your device — nothing is uploaded, no account is created, and no analytics track individual names. First names alone are generally considered low-risk under FERPA and GDPR, but avoid combining full names with IDs, grades, or other personal data.

Spin the full roster until you have enough captains, enable Remove Winner After Spin so no student is picked twice, then use a second spin on the remaining students to assign teams. Narrate it as "the wheel decides, not me" — students accept random outcomes far more easily than teacher choices.

Absolutely. Load the class roster to pick who answers, or load a list of review topics to pick the next question. Combine with points on the whiteboard for a low-prep review game. Teachers report that students stay engaged longer when the next question is chosen visibly at random.

Export the comment list with a free Instagram comment picker, deduplicate usernames, and paste them into WheelieNames. Screen-record the spin from the moment the names load so entrants can verify their handle was on the wheel. Post the unedited video when you announce the winner to head off accusations of rigging.

Scrape the comments (or copy them manually for smaller threads), clean the list of bots and duplicate entries, then paste into the wheel. Livestream the spin on TikTok Live or post it as a reel — the visible randomness dramatically increases trust and usually drives more engagement than a text-only winner post.

For comment-based giveaways, paste the commenter list directly into WheelieNames. For subscriber-based draws, export via a YouTube data tool, filter for those who completed the entry task, and load the cleaned list. Record the spin as a short so subscribers can watch the draw end-to-end.

Paste the list into a free online "remove duplicates" tool first, then into WheelieNames. Duplicates on the wheel mean some entrants get multiple chances, which breaks the "one entry per person" rule most giveaways advertise. Always dedupe before you spin, and mention the dedupe step in your fairness post.

Turn on Remove Winner After Spin, then spin three times in a row. The first spin gives first place, the second gives second place on the reduced wheel, and so on. This guarantees three different winners and is the same method used for tiered raffles at in-person events.

Spin with Remove Winner After Spin enabled and pick five winners in one session: one primary and four alternates ranked in order. Post all five as "Winner + 4 alternates" so everyone sees the draw was done at once and you cannot later pick a favorite if the first does not reply.

Yes — share your browser window, load the cleaned entry list, and spin on camera. Viewers watch the wheel in real time, which is the highest-trust format for a giveaway. Because WheelieNames runs fully client-side, there is no latency between your click and the spin, so the moment feels live.

Publish the rules before the draw, dedupe entries, show the full entry list on the wheel before spinning, record an unedited video of the draw, and post backup winners in rank order. These five steps cover every complaint we have seen, and skipping any one of them is where most "rigged draw" accusations come from.

List 5–10 nearby restaurants or meal ideas on the wheel, spin, and commit to the result. The trick is deciding in advance that you will accept whatever the wheel picks — otherwise you will keep re-spinning until you get what you already wanted. This beats endless "I don't know, what do you want?" loops.

Add "Yes" and "No" to the wheel and spin once. Before you look, notice what outcome you were hoping for — that gut reaction is often more valuable than the actual spin result. Many users use the wheel as a tie-breaker between two options they have been stuck on for days.

Load every roommate name on the wheel and spin once per chore, using Remove Winner After Spin so nobody gets picked twice in the same round. Rotate who spins each week. This removes the social friction of "who does the dishes" because everyone watches the wheel — not a person — make the call.

Yes — it is one of the most common use cases. Load the tied options, spin once, and the wheel breaks the tie with provable fairness. Teams running retrospectives and planning meetings use this to end circular debates that would otherwise waste another 20 minutes of meeting time.

Both partners add two or three options to a shared wheel, then spin. Agreeing beforehand that the result is binding turns a 30-minute debate into a 30-second draw. The fairness of the spin makes it easier to accept the outcome because neither person "lost" the negotiation.

The wheel works best as a decision tool only if you commit to the result before you spin. Re-spinning until you get the answer you wanted defeats the purpose and trains your brain to distrust the tool. If you find yourself wanting to re-spin, that is a signal your preference is clear — go with your gut instead.

Open Settings in the sidebar and toggle the Sound switch. The sound is off by default on mobile to respect autoplay rules, and you can turn it on with one tap. Many teachers leave it on during class because the click-click builds anticipation and keeps students watching the wheel.

When enabled, the picked name is removed from the wheel after each spin so it cannot be selected again. This is essential for drawing multiple unique winners, forming groups, or calling on every student once before repeating. Reset the wheel to bring everyone back for the next round.

Yes — Settings has a spin-duration slider so you can pick a fast 2-second spin or a dramatic 10-second one. Longer spins build suspense during live giveaways; shorter spins keep class momentum going. Your choice saves to local storage so the wheel remembers your preference on next visit.

WheelieNames ships with a high-contrast default palette that auto-assigns colors as you add names, so no two adjacent segments ever look the same. Custom color themes and segment-specific colors are on the roadmap. For now you can screenshot the wheel and recolor it in any image editor if you need brand colors.

Open the Results tab in the sidebar. It shows every winner from the current session in order, with the most recent on top. The history persists until you reset it, which is useful for reviewing who has been picked across a long class or a multi-round tournament.

Copy-paste from the Results tab into Google Sheets or Excel works today. A dedicated CSV export button is planned for a future release based on user requests. If you need automated logging for a workplace process, contact us — we may be able to help with a custom integration.

Today WheelieNames keeps one active list per browser. Teachers who run multiple classes typically bookmark a separate tab per period or use the share link to open each roster in one click. Multi-wheel profiles are on the roadmap and one of our most-requested features.

Yes — press the Spacebar when the wheel is focused to trigger a spin, and Enter after typing a new name in the entries box to add it to the wheel. These shortcuts let power users run classroom draws without ever touching the mouse, which keeps the lesson flow uninterrupted.

WheelieNames does not collect personal information. Your name lists are stored only in your browser local storage, which stays on your device and is never sent to our servers. We use privacy-respecting anonymous analytics to count page views and catch errors, with no cookies that track individuals across sites.

Yes. Because no personal data leaves your device, there is nothing to "process" under GDPR terms. We do not use tracking cookies, we do not sell data, and we do not share anything with advertisers. Full details are on our privacy page, which is written in plain language instead of legalese.

No account, no email, no password. Everything works the moment the page loads. We made this choice deliberately so teachers in locked-down school networks, minors, and anyone who just wants a quick spin can use the tool without a sign-up friction or a "forgot password" detour.

Click Reset in the sidebar to empty the current wheel, or clear site data from your browser settings (Chrome: Settings → Privacy → Site settings → wheelienames.com → Clear data) to wipe everything. On shared school computers, clearing browser history at the end of the period wipes the list automatically.

After your first visit, modern browsers cache the page and core assets, so you can usually open WheelieNames with no network connection. This is handy in classrooms with flaky wifi or at events in venues with poor reception. A full offline-first mode with installable PWA support is on the roadmap.

No third-party ads and no cross-site trackers. The page loads fast because there is nothing getting in the way. We believe ads and trackers erode trust in a fairness tool — if you cannot trust the page, you cannot trust the spin — so we have committed to keeping the site clean.

First, make sure the entries box has at least two names — a one-name wheel has nothing to spin. Next, disable any aggressive script blockers for the page. If that does not work, hard-refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R on Windows, Cmd+Shift+R on Mac). These three steps resolve 95% of spin-failure reports we receive.

When segments get narrow, long names truncate with an ellipsis to keep the wheel readable. Shorten the displayed form (use first names or initials) or reduce the number of entries to give each segment more room. On desktop with fewer than 20 names, truncation rarely happens.

iOS Safari sometimes throttles the first tap after a page loads. Tap anywhere on the page once to "wake" it, then tap the wheel to spin. If it still does not respond, reload the tab. We have added extra touch-handling to catch this, but a Safari update occasionally reintroduces the issue.

The list is stored in the browser local storage, so it disappears if you clear cookies and site data, use private/incognito mode, or open the site on a different device. There is no cloud backup. For important rosters, save the names in a Google Doc or spreadsheet and paste them back in if the browser forgets.

Check that Remove Winner After Spin is enabled if you want unique winners — without it, every spin picks from the full list, so repeats are expected. If it is enabled and you still see repeats, reload the page to make sure the setting took effect. This is the single most common "rigged wheel" complaint and it is almost always this setting.

Very long lists (300+ names) push the rendering budget on older devices. Close other browser tabs, switch to Chrome or Edge, or split the list into two rounds. On laptops and modern phones the wheel stays smooth well past 500 entries, so performance issues almost always point to a device constraint.

Share links encode the list in the URL. If the link was truncated by a messaging app or email client (especially for very long lists), the decode fails and the wheel loads empty. Ask the sender to resend using a link shortener or as plain text so no characters get stripped in transit.

WheelieNames works on every modern browser — Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, Brave, Opera, and Chromium derivatives — on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and ChromeOS. Internet Explorer is not supported because it lacks the Web Crypto API that powers the fair random generator.