How to Pick a Name Out of a Hat, Online

Pulling a name out of a hat online is the same idea without the hat: type or paste the names, one per line, and draw one at random. It settles the small decisions a hat used to — who wins, who goes first, who buys the coffees.

Why the hat, still

The hat was never about the hat. It was a way to make a choice that nobody could argue with, in front of the people it affected. That is the part worth keeping: not you deciding, but a draw everyone watched. An on-screen pick does the same job, and it doesn't depend on finding a hat and enough scraps of paper.

What it's good for

• A prize or giveaway winner from a list of entrants.
• Who presents first, or the order a group goes in.
• A tie-breaker nobody wants to be seen to decide.
• The small stuff — who picks the film, who does the washing-up.

Draw it where it counts

If the result matters to more than just you, draw on a screen the others can see — a moment of suspense, then the name. Watching it land is what makes people accept it, the same way watching a hand go into a hat did. You can pull one name or several, and set past picks aside so the same name doesn't come up twice.

The Raffle & Giveaway Winner Picker is the hat for a winner or a one-off decision. If instead you are giving everyone a turn in a shuffled order — a class, a standup — the Random Name Picker is built for that.