Name generator
A draw that nobody has to supervise
Add the names, mark who cannot draw whom, and every person gets a private card to scratch. Including you — the organiser sees who has opened theirs, never what was on it.
Run a drawFree · No account for your guests · Ready in three minutes
Scratch the card
The two things a hat cannot do
Folded paper works right up until somebody draws their own name, and then the whole thing restarts — in front of everyone, with three people who have already seen theirs and now know something they should not.
The second failure is quieter and worse: whoever organises a paper draw ends up knowing several of the matches, and after that they are the only person in the group who cannot be surprised. A generator removes both, because it is the only participant that reads the result.
What it does not remove is the thinking. The budget, the date, the pairs who should not draw each other — those are still yours. The draw itself is thirty seconds of arithmetic, and it is the part nobody should be doing by hand.
How it works
- 1
Add the names
First name, last name, email. Paste them in one go or type them out; nobody installs anything and nobody creates an account.
- 2
Mark the exclusions
Couples, flatmates, anyone who exchanged last year: flag the pairs and the draw is made to route around them.
- 3
Send it
Every person gets a private link by email. They scratch a card, one name appears, and it is never shown anywhere else.
- 4
Watch the progress, not the result
Your dashboard shows who has opened their card and who has not. It has no view of who drew whom, and neither do you.
What a draw has to guarantee
- Nobody draws themselves
- The arrangement is built so that no person is matched with themselves — not corrected afterwards, which is how a shuffled list quietly ends up biased.
- Every exclusion is respected, or none of it goes out
- Enough excluded pairs and no valid arrangement exists at all. When that happens you are told before a single email is sent, rather than receiving a draw that quietly ignored two of them.
- The organiser is a participant like the others
- Matches are encrypted and never displayed. You take part in your own draw and find out who you have at the same moment as everyone else.
- One draw, one result
- Re-running a draw after the cards have gone out would mean two truths in circulation. Change the names before you send, not after.
Common questions
Is it actually random?
Yes. The arrangement is drawn at random from those that satisfy every exclusion, so no name is more likely than another to fall to you.
Do my guests need an account?
No. Each person gets a private link by email that works straight away. Only you sign in, and by email link rather than a password.
Can I use it without email addresses?
No — an address is how a card reaches one person and only that person. If somebody has none, use the address of whoever they live with and hand them the screen.
How many people do you need?
Three is the minimum. With two there is no secret: each one knows they are giving to the other.
What if the exclusions make a draw impossible?
You are told, and nothing is sent. With three people, excluding one pair already leaves only one possible arrangement; excluding two leaves none.
Is it free?
Yes, and there is nothing to buy later. Your guests are never asked for an address beyond the one you gave, and nothing is sold on.
Three minutes, and nobody has to hold the hat
Add the names, mark the pairs, send the draw. Then find out who you drew, like everyone else.
Run a drawPindao