MyWheelName.com Guides

How to Use a Random Name Picker

By My Wheel Name Team·Updated July 25, 2026·5 min read

A random name picker does one job. It takes a list of names and chooses one without human bias. People reach for one when the stakes are low but the fairness matters: who presents first, who gets the last slice of pizza, which student answers the next question, who wins the office raffle.

This guide takes you from a blank wheel to a confident first spin, then through the options that turn a simple picker into a raffle tool, an elimination game, or a classroom routine.

Step one, get names onto the wheel

There are more ways to add names than most people ever discover, and picking the right one saves real time. From fastest to most structured:

• Type and press Enter. Fine for a handful of names. The entry counter next to the input shows how many are loaded against the maximum, which is 100 on the standard wheel.
• Paste a list. Copy a column from a spreadsheet or a list of names from anywhere, paste it into the entry field, and each line becomes its own entry automatically. This is the workhorse method for ten or more names.
• Import a file. The IMPORT button accepts .txt files with one name per line and .csv files where every cell becomes an entry.
• Import from Google Classroom. Teachers can connect a Classroom account and pull a student roster directly from an active course, with no retyping thirty names every term.
• Drag and drop. Drop a text file straight onto the entry panel, or drop an image onto a specific entry to give that segment a photo, which is useful for wheels of faces rather than names.

Step two, spin

Press the spin button, or the wheel's hub. The wheel turns, slows, and the pointer lands on a winner, which also appears in a result popup where you can copy it to your clipboard or share it. That's the whole core loop.

Two things are worth knowing about what just happened. The result came from your browser's cryptographic random number generator, so every name had an equal chance, and the spin was computed on your device rather than on a server deciding winners.

Step three, the options most people actually use

The default behaviour suits quick decisions: spin once, get one winner, names stay on the wheel. The Options menu changes that for everything else.

• Multiple winners. Pick two, three or ten results in one spin session instead of spinning repeatedly. Good for picking four volunteers at once.
• Remove winners. Each picked name leaves the wheel, so nobody is chosen twice. This is the setting for taking turns, prize draws and assigning tasks.
• Allow duplicates. The opposite, where a name can win repeatedly. Useful when each spin is an independent event, such as who answers this question drills.
• Elimination mode. The wheel spins repeatedly and removes each result until one name survives. It inverts the meaning of winning, since the last name standing is your winner, and it's the most fun format for game nights.

Weights, making some names more likely on purpose

Every entry has a weight, which defaults to 1. Raise it with the plus control and that entry becomes proportionally more likely, so a weight of 3 behaves like three raffle tickets.

People use weights for earned chances, such as a customer with three purchases, for handicapping games, or for gently biasing chores toward whoever's turn it really is. The key habit is that weights are visible per entry, so anyone inspecting the wheel can see exactly what the odds are. If you change weights, say so. We cover the probability maths and the etiquette in a dedicated weighted wheel guide.

Saving and sharing your wheel

Any wheel you've set up, including names, colours and options, can be saved to My Wheels with a free account, and it syncs across devices.

Saving matters more than it sounds, because the difference between a tool you use once and a routine is whether the setup survives until next time. A teacher saves one wheel per class, a team saves its standup wheel, a family saves the chores wheel.

From My Wheels you can also generate a share link, and anyone who opens it gets your exact wheel, with the same names and the same settings, without recreating anything. There's also a community library of shared wheels you can browse and import.

Customising the look

The Customize panel controls segment colours, individually or via preset palettes, along with text contrast, the celebration confetti in classic, emoji or winner's name form, and even the spin button itself, which you can replace with your own image or logo.

None of this changes the odds. It changes whether the wheel feels like yours. Streamers and teachers tend to brand theirs, and everyone else usually picks a palette and moves on.

A few starting recipes

That's genuinely all there is to it. Add names the fast way, pick the option that matches your situation, and let the wheel make the call. The first time a group accepts a result without arguing, purely because the wheel said so, you'll understand why people keep one saved.