Name Picker Wheel

A spinning name picker wheel built for classrooms. Paste your class list, spin, get a random student — 60fps on Chromebooks, no signup, no ads.

0 names

Saved to this browser. No account, no upload, no signup.

Useful for cold-calling — each student is picked at most once until you re-paste the list.

Add names above to spin

What makes this name picker wheel different

Most spinning name pickers online are built on HTML Canvas — which looks fine on modern desktops but drops frames on the Chromebooks actually deployed in classrooms. This wheel uses an SVG rendered once, then animated with a single CSS transform: rotate(). The browser hands the animation to the GPU and the spin stays smooth even on a $200 Celeron Chromebook.

Everything else is built for the way teachers really use a name wheel: paste your class list once and it's saved locally; turn the "remove after pick" toggle on for fair cold-call rotations; project full-screen with high-contrast slice colours readable from the back of a classroom.

Setup in 60 seconds

  1. Paste your students. One name per line, or paste a comma-separated list from a spreadsheet. Duplicates are removed.
  2. Spin. The wheel turns for about five seconds with a decelerating ease, lands on a random slice, and shows the selected name in a card below.
  3. Bookmark this page.The list is saved in your browser. The next time you open the bookmark, it's already populated.

When to use a wheel and when to skip it

Use the wheel when you want the social fairness of a random pick and the engagement of a visible process. Skip the wheel when you want to call on a specific student for a specific question — the wheel is for fairness, not for differentiated questioning. A well-designed lesson has both: random cold calls for participation, targeted prompts for individual support.

Accessibility considerations

The wheel has an ARIA role="img" with a label, and the result card uses aria-live="polite" so screen readers announce the picked name. The colour palette uses contrast levels that pass WCAG AA against the wheel labels. If you teach a student with vestibular sensitivity, consider switching to the non-wheel name picker or offering a quiet pick (you read the chosen name) rather than full-screen projection.

Embed and projection

Open the page on the classroom computer, press F11 (Windows / ChromeOS) or use the green button (macOS) to enter full-screen. The wheel scales to the display. We don't offer an official OBS or iframe embed for the wheel because the input textarea doesn't make sense as an overlay — for streaming, the standalone page in a browser window is the right pattern.

Related Tools

Name Picker (default)

Same tool, broader long-form copy for cold-call rotations.

Name Picker — No Signup

Same wheel, framed for searchers looking specifically for a no-account option.

Group Generator

Random groups from the same class list — paste once, use everywhere.

Toolkit Hub

All four free classroom tools in one place.

Name Picker Wheel FAQ

Is this name picker wheel free?
Yes, completely. No signup, no email, no ads, no watermark on the wheel. The page is hosted as part of GoTimer's free classroom toolkit and will stay free.
How does this name picker wheel differ from wheelofnames.com?
Functionally similar — both produce a uniform-random pick. Differences: this wheel is integrated with the rest of the classroom toolkit (group generator, noise meter, tally) under one bookmark, uses SVG + CSS transforms for 60fps on low-spec Chromebooks, and saves your class list locally without an account. wheelofnames.com has a longer feature list (skins, sounds, history) and a much larger brand presence.
Does the wheel run at 60fps on a Chromebook?
Yes. The spin animation is a CSS transform on an SVG element — the browser hands it off to the GPU, so even an Intel Celeron N4020 Chromebook runs the rotation smoothly. We deliberately chose SVG + CSS over Canvas for this reason.
Can I customise the wheel colours?
The wheel cycles through a fixed 10-colour palette chosen for high-contrast visibility from the back of a classroom. Per-slice custom colours are a planned addition; let us know if it's a blocker for your use.
What happens after the wheel lands on a name?
The winning name displays in a highlighted card below the wheel. If "Remove name after spin" is on (default), that name disappears from the wheel for the next spin. If off, the wheel stays the same and the next spin could land on the same student.
Can students see the wheel from the back of the room?
Yes — the wheel is sized to be readable on a 1080p projector from 20 feet away. For very small slices (40+ names), the label font shrinks; if names are hard to read in that case, switch to first-names-only or numbered placeholders.
Can I save multiple wheels for different classes?
Yes, by URL. Bookmark the page with a different browser profile per class, or visit the page in incognito for a one-off wheel. A built-in "classes" feature with named profiles is on the roadmap; ask if you'd use it.
Does the wheel sound or vibrate when it stops?
No. The wheel is intentionally silent so it can run on a classroom projector without surprise audio. A click-tick during the spin and a soft chime at the end are planned options. Let us know if silence vs. cues matters for your classroom.