Wheel of Names
Free random name picker wheel. Type a list, spin it, pick a winner. Optional remove-after-spin for fair rounds.
NAMES
One per line, or separated by commas. Up to 50 entries.
8 names on the wheel.
EMBED ON YOUR SITE
The current name list and remove-winner setting bake into the iframe URL. Embed visitors see your wheel; they can spin but not edit.
ABOUT THIS WIDGET
The Astryke Wheel of Names is a free embeddable random-name picker wheel. Type a list of entries, click to spin, and a winner is picked at random. Up to fifty entries. Optional remove-winner-after-spin mode for fair raffle rounds and tournament brackets. Plays on phone and desktop. Drop into any blog post, classroom slide, livestream, or HTML file. Or download it as a single self-contained HTML file that plays offline forever.
Why use this widget instead of the alternatives
- Free. Always. No paywalls, no upgrade nags, no time-limited trials.
- No ads on the widget itself. Other random-picker sites are buried in display ads, autoplay video, and cookie banners.
- No tracking on the embedded version. The widget loads no Google Analytics, no Cloudflare Web Analytics, no third-party scripts inside the iframe.
- Mobile-friendly. The 480 by 520 canvas scales responsively, taps work without delay, and the SPIN button stays reachable on phone screens.
- Offline-capable. Download a single self-contained HTML file that plays without an internet connection. Perfect for classrooms with locked-down wifi, conference workshops, or pack-into-your-own-app use.
- Honest randomness. Math.random() picks the winner before the spin animation starts. No predetermined outcome, no biased physics, no insider control.
- Click anywhere on the wheel to spin, or hit the SPIN button. Both work the same.
- Per-spin tick sound and a winner fanfare, with a mute toggle for quiet classrooms.
- No accounts, no signup, no login. Anywhere. Ever.
What makes it great
- Up to fifty names per wheel. The slices auto-size and slice labels auto-truncate so even long lists stay readable.
- Rainbow slice palette (HSL hue rotation) for instant visual variety. No theme picker, no setup. The wheel just looks alive.
- Optional remove-winner-after-spin mode. Toggle it on for raffles, tournament brackets, or any draw where each winner should be picked only once. Toggle it off for repeated random picks.
- Click the wheel itself or click the SPIN button. Both trigger the same spin. Matches the muscle memory people have from other wheel-of-names sites.
- Realistic spin physics. About four seconds of ease-out deceleration, five revolutions, with per-slice randomness so the pointer never lands suspiciously at the center.
- Tick sound per slice as the pointer passes, decelerating with the wheel. Winner gets a triumphant ascending arpeggio. All synthesized via Web Audio, zero file downloads.
- URL-param customization. Embed ?names=Alice,Bob,Carol&remove=1 and every visitor sees that exact wheel and toggle state. Sticky across refreshes without cookies or localStorage.
- Bake-on-download. Configure on astryke.com, click Download as HTML, get a file with your names and settings baked in.
- Mute button in the header for embed environments where audio would be disruptive.
- Reset button clears the removed-winners list when you want to re-spin everyone.
- Custom right-click menu instead of the browser default, branded with a link back to Astryke.
- Hi-DPI canvas rendering for sharp visuals on Retina and 4K displays.
Where this works well
Classroom random name picker. Type the class roster, spin to pick who answers next. Remove-winner mode ensures every student gets called on before the wheel resets. Works offline on a USB drive for locked-down school computers.
Livestream raffles and giveaways. Type the entrants, share your screen, spin live on stream. Remove-winner mode keeps each prize round fair. No third-party service, no account, no entrant data leaving your machine.
Tournament brackets and team draws. Spin to pair players, spin to pick first matchup. Remove-winner mode plus reset gives you a clean draw flow without paper slips or app downloads.
Team standups and meeting rotations. Spin to pick who demos first, who runs retro, who buys lunch. Embed in a Notion page or team wiki for everyone to share.
Conference and event MCs. Open on a phone, type the speaker list, spin to pick lightning-talk order live on stage. Plays offline if the venue wifi dies.
Decision-making for kids. Type three dinner options, three movies, three weekend activities. Spin. Done. Pre-empts the negotiation spiral.
Discord and Twitch community giveaways. Drop the iframe into a channel description, panel, or pinned message page. Visitors see and spin the same wheel you configured.
Customization in detail
The name list. Type names one per line in the NAMES textarea. Commas also work as separators, so you can paste a comma-separated list directly. Whitespace is trimmed, blank lines are skipped, and the list is capped at fifty entries. The wheel updates live as you type.
Remove winner after spin. Off (the default): every spin draws from the full list. Useful for repeated random picks where each name can win more than once. On: the winner is removed from the wheel after each spin. Useful for raffles, tournament draws, and classroom name-calling where you want every entry to be picked exactly once. The Reset button in the header restores all removed names.
URL params. Configuration persists via URL query parameters in the embed iframe src. Examples: ?names=Alice,Bob,Carol sets the name list; ?remove=1 turns on remove-winner mode; both combine. The Copy Embed Code button generates the right URL automatically. URL params survive page refresh, work in iframes, and require no cookies or localStorage.
Mute. A small speaker icon in the top-right header toggles all sounds (tick, winner, click). Useful for embeds in pages where audio would be disruptive, or for quiet classrooms.
Embedded vs configurator mode. When the widget runs on astryke.com itself (the configurator), the textarea is shown so you can edit the list. When it runs inside an iframe (embedded mode), the textarea is hidden and visitors interact with the wheel you configured. Visitors can still spin, toggle remove-winner, mute, and reset, but cannot change the name list. To embed a wheel that visitors can edit, link them to the configurator URL instead.
Frequently asked questions
Is the wheel of names free to use commercially?
Yes. Use it in client work, in a paid course, in monetized blog posts, in product demos, in livestream raffles. No attribution required. The watermark at the bottom right links back to Astryke regardless, which is how the project funds future widgets.
Is the randomness real or rigged?
Real. The winning index is drawn by Math.random() before the spin animation starts. The wheel then rotates so the pointer lands inside the chosen slice. There is no biased physics, no insider control, no advertiser-friendly rigging. The values are the values.
Can I set how many revolutions or how long the spin takes?
Not in v1. Every spin is about four seconds with five revolutions. This range was tuned for tension without dragging out. A future version may expose spin-time and revolutions as URL params, but for now it is fixed.
Will visitors to my embedded wheel be tracked by Astryke?
No. The iframe-embedded version does not load Google Analytics, Cloudflare Web Analytics, or any third-party tracking. Visitors to astryke.com itself are measured, but visitors who only interact with embedded wheels on your site are not.
Does this work on phones and tablets?
Yes. The canvas scales responsively, touch is supported without delay, and both the wheel itself and the SPIN button are tappable on phone screens.
Can embed visitors edit the name list?
No, the embedded version hides the textarea editor. Visitors see and spin the wheel you configured. If you want a wheel that visitors can edit themselves, link them to https://astryke.com/sparks/wheel-of-names/ instead (the configurator).
What is the maximum number of names?
Fifty. Beyond that the slice labels become unreadable. If you need more, consider splitting the list into multiple wheels (group A wheel, group B wheel) and spinning each separately.
Will my configuration persist if visitors refresh the page?
Yes, because configuration lives in the iframe URL. Every refresh sees the same name list and remove-winner setting. No cookies, no localStorage.
Can I edit the source code of the downloaded HTML file?
Yes. The standalone HTML is plain readable JavaScript. Open it in a text editor, change colors, swap the font, tweak the spin duration, do whatever you want. No build step required.
Will this slow down my page?
No noticeable impact. The iframe lazy-loads (loading=lazy), the standalone is under 20 KB, and there are no third-party scripts. Lighthouse scores stay clean.