Name Picker & Teams
Pick winners or split a list into teams.
Free to use · No sign-up needed
A random name picker that also builds teams
Two jobs come up constantly with a list of people: choosing someone, and splitting everyone up. This tool does both from the same list. Paste the names once, then either pull out winners or deal everybody into even teams.
It is deliberately plain. There is no sign-up, no account, and nothing to install. Paste, press a button, read the answer off the screen. On a laptop you can switch to Focus mode so the result fills the display, which is the version to use when a room is watching.
How to use it
- Paste your names into the box, one per line or separated by commas. Duplicates disappear on their own.
- Choose Pick winners or Make teams.
- Set the number: how many people to pick, or how many teams to build.
- Press the button. Winners appear one after another; teams appear as coloured cards.
- In teams mode, Reshuffle deals the same names again if the first split looks lopsided.
Good uses
- Classrooms: choose who answers next, or break thirty students into six working groups in one press.
- Meetings: pick who runs the retro, who takes notes, who demos first.
- Sports and games: split whoever turned up into fair sides without anyone captaining.
- Giveaways: paste the entrants, pick three winners, screenshot the result.
- Chores: decide who does the washing up, then remove them so they are safe next week.
Picking without repeats
The Remove picked names option is what turns a single draw into a running order. Pick one, the name leaves the list, pick again, and you work through everybody exactly once. It is the quickest way to build a presentation order that nobody can accuse you of arranging.
How the teams come out
Teams come out as even as the numbers allow. The tool shuffles the list, then deals names out one at a time like cards, so no team is ever more than one person larger than another. Ask for more teams than you have names and it still deals them: the extra teams come out empty, marked Nobody yet, with a note explaining why.
Sharing a list
Copy share link puts the whole list into the address, so a colleague opening it sees the same names, the same mode and the same count. Nothing is saved on our side, which also means the link is the only copy. If the list matters, keep it somewhere else too.
Questions people ask
- Is the pick actually random?
- Yes. Every name has the same chance every time, using your browser's random number generator. There is no weighting, no memory of previous picks, and no way for us to influence the result.
- How does it decide team sizes?
- It shuffles the list, then deals names out one at a time like cards, so teams never differ by more than one person. With seven names and three teams you get three, two and two.
- How many names can I paste in?
- Up to a hundred. Paste a class roster or a whole department; the list is scrollable and duplicates are removed automatically.
- Does my list get sent anywhere?
- No. Everything happens in your browser and nothing is stored on our servers. If you press Copy share link the names travel inside the link itself, so only people you send it to can see them.
- Can I pick without repeats across several rounds?
- Tick Remove picked names from the list. Each round takes the winners out, so running it again draws from whoever is left. Useful for a presenting order or a raffle with several prizes.