Random name generator in Excel

Do you need a simple random name generator in Excel to quickly select winners offline? Here is a guide on how to do it yourself. It can be used as a lucky draw generator, raffle generator and you can randomize any items, not only select winners.

A simple guide on how to make the random name generator using Excel

Type or copy your list, each name comes into a separate row.

Put the following formula into a cell in the second column (B):

=INDEX($A:$A;RANDBETWEEN(1;COUNTA($A:$A));1)

This screenshot clarifies everything:

Random name generator in Excel

What does the formula do? Let’s split it into several parts to explain how the randomizer works:

• COUNTA($A:$A) – this part counts the number of your participants or entries in the first column (and excludes empty cells)
• RANDBETWEEN(…) – generates a random number between 1 and the count of your entries (calculated in the previous step)
• INDEX(…) – returns the value of the randomly selected item from the first column.

Every time you do some action, Excel recalculates all formulas and you will get a new winner. You can also do the recalculation manually – just press F9.

You can read more about excel RandBetween formula here.

Try RandomPicker instead of Excel

Using Excel as a winner generator may not always be appropriate for your marketing activities. Excel does not provide any evidence of the draw process or the correctness of the selection of winners. That’s why we founded RandomPicker. Try it for free and you’ll see that it’s much more useful for the purpose of drawing winners!

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Download the excel template with the formula: Excel-Randomizer.xlsx