What Is a Wheel of Names?

A wheel of names is a spinning wheel with one slice for each name. You spin it, it slows down, and the slice that stops under the arrow is the winner. It works like drawing a name from a hat, but everyone can watch the draw, which makes it feel fair.

It goes by many names: a wheel spinner, spinner wheel, spin wheel or name wheel. They all work the same way: type your list, spin the wheel, and let chance decide.

People use this wheel spinner as a:

Random name picker for the classroom: who answers next, who presents first, or how to split students into groups.
Raffle or giveaway picker: put every entrant on the wheel and spin for the winner, live on a stream or a video call.
Decision maker: where to eat, which movie to watch, or what chore to do first. Any words work, not just names.
Prize wheel or lucky draw at events and parties, with each winner eliminated so no one wins twice.

Which tool should I use?

To pick one name or option from a list, use this name wheel.
To roll for a number, such as 1 to 6 or a d20 for a game, use the Dice Roller.
To turn a count into odds, such as 3 winners out of 40 entries, use the Percentage Calculator.

How to Calculate the Chance of Being Picked

A name's chance is the size of its slices compared with the whole wheel. With a plain list every slice is the same size, so you count slices; in Advanced mode a slice with weight 2 is twice as big. Either way:

P = \frac{k}{n}

If you spin several times and put each winner back, the chance a name comes up at least once is:

P (at least once) = 1 - {(1 - \frac{k}{n})}^{s}

k: the name's slices: how many times it's on the list, or its weight. Usually 1.
n: all the slices on the wheel: the number of names, or all the weights added up.
s: how many spins.

When you eliminate each winner instead, nobody can win twice, and every name is picked once in n spins. Your chance of being picked in the first few spins is simply spins ÷ names.

Example

The wheel opens with 8 names: Olivia, Liam, Sofia, Mateo, Emma, Noah, Amara, Lucas.

Sofia is on the wheel once: 1 ÷ 8 = 12.5%, the same as every other name.
Type Sofia a second time and the wheel has 9 slices, 2 of them hers: 2 ÷ 9 = 22.22%.
Give Sofia a weight of 3 in Advanced mode instead: 3 ÷ 10 = 30%.
Spin 8 times, putting winners back: 1 − (7 ÷ 8)⁸ = 65.64%. So there's a 34.36% chance Sofia is never picked, and some names often win twice.
Spin 3 times, eliminating each winner: 3 ÷ 8 = 37.5% chance Sofia is one of the first three picked.

Is the wheel truly random? Yes. The winner is drawn with your browser's secure random numbers (the same kind used for passwords) before the wheel starts turning, and the spin then lands on that slice. Spin time, colors, the order of the list and how often you spin don't change anyone's chance. The same name winning twice in a row is normal: with 8 names, it happens 1 time in 8.

How to Use the Wheel Spinner

"I need to pick a student to go first, and I want the class to see it's fair." This tool answers that.

Let's use the names for this example. They are already on the wheel when the page opens, so you can spin straight away and then type your own list in the Entries panel beside the wheel (under it on a phone). The wheel turns slowly until your first spin, then waits still between spins, and it gets a new color for each name you add.

Entries: Enter one name per line: Olivia, Liam, Sofia and so on. The wheel updates as you type. Paste up to 1,000 names, each up to 60 characters, straight from a spreadsheet or document; blank lines are skipped. A name typed twice gets two slices and twice the chance.
Shuffle and Sort: Shuffle mixes the order; the Sort menu puts the list in alphabetical order or removes duplicates, keeping one copy of each name. Order doesn't change anyone's chance.
Add image: Background puts a picture behind the wheel; Center puts one, such as a logo, in the middle of the wheel; As entry adds a picture as a new entry named after its file (you can rename it), and its slice shows the picture. Pick several pictures at once to add them all. Names with a picture are listed under the box, with × to take the picture off. Customize can change or remove the background and center pictures.
Advanced (beside Add wheel): Tick it to see each entry on its own row. Set a weight from 1 to 1,000 (2 doubles the slice), click the circle to pick the entry's own color (or the small picture to change or remove it), untick an entry to take it off the wheel for now, or click × to delete it. Press Enter in a name box to add the next row.
Customize: a Wheel Title shown above the wheel; the Spin Time, 5 seconds here, from 1 to 60; the Winner Message; the Colors (Rainbow, Pastel, Bold, Ocean or Teal and Amber); a Center Picture, such as a class photo or logo; and switches for the tick sound, applause for the winner, confetti, the winner pop-up and eliminating each winner automatically. Changes apply when you click Done.
Add wheel: adds another spinner wheel beside the first, up to 4, each with its own entries: for example one name wheel for students and one spin wheel for topics. Click a wheel, or its name button under Add wheel, to open its entries; that wheel lights up for a moment so you can see which one it is. Spin all, under the wheels, spins every wheel at once, and the × on a wheel's name button deletes that wheel. The arrow next to Add wheel has the same choices.
Save and Open: Save downloads the wheels as a small file, with their settings and pictures; Open loads it again later or on another computer. The wheel is also remembered in this browser, so it's still there next time.
Full screen (the square icon at the right of the toolbar): shows just the wheels, as big as your screen allows, for a classroom projector or a stream. Press Esc to leave.

Spin the Wheel and Start Over

Click anywhere on the wheel, the arrow on its right, its center or the frame around it, or press Ctrl+Enter (Cmd+Enter on a Mac). With several wheels, clicking one wheel spins just that wheel (and opens its list), and Spin all, a click on the frame or Ctrl+Enter spins them all together, each picking its own winner. The arrow takes the color of the slice it points at, so you can see the winner coming as the wheel slows. If something needs fixing first, such as an empty list, a line that is too long or a weight of 0, a message pops up under that box instead. Each spin is random, so your winner will differ; the chances don't.

The winner pop-up: the screen dims and a box shows the winner's name (and picture, for a picture entry), headed in the color of the winning slice, while applause plays and confetti flies across the whole screen; with several wheels, one winner per wheel. The wheel stays still while it's open. Click outside the box to close it. Remove (or Remove All) eliminates it from the wheel (one copy, if it's on there twice; in Advanced mode the entry is unticked), and Close keeps it on. With automatic elimination on, the winner is already gone and Put Back undoes it.
Results: the second tab of the side panel lists every winner, newest first, with Sort and Clear the list.
Spins: every spin on this visit, newest first: who was selected, their chance at that moment (12.5% for any of the 8 example names) and whether they were Eliminated or Kept. With several wheels, a Wheel column shows which wheel picked them.
Eliminated: the names taken off the wheel, in the order they went, with the spin that picked them and how many names were left.
On the Wheel: each name still on the wheel, its slices, its chance of winning the next spin and how many times it has been selected.
Download Excel: the spins with the time of each, the chance worked out in the sheet, and the result. Handy as a record of a raffle or giveaway. Clear empties the spin list.
Share: a link that opens this page with the same entries, weights, colors, title and spin time. Copy it, or share it on Facebook or X. Pictures aren't included; use Save for those.

Click New in the toolbar to start over with one wheel of the 8 example names and the standard settings, and clear the spins; it asks first if you've changed anything. The wheel is for fun, classrooms and simple draws; for a prize draw with legal rules, follow those rules too.