Random Team Generator: Split Names Into Fair Teams

A random team generator takes a list of names and splits them into fair, random teams in one click. Paste your names, choose how many teams you want (or how many people per team), and hit generate. Everyone gets an equal shot at each team, and you can reroll until it feels right.

You just ran it, so you already see how fast it is. Here’s what’s happening under the hood and how to get more out of it.

How to make random teams in 3 steps

1. Paste your names. One per line, or separated by commas. The tool cleans up extra spaces and drops duplicates so a name can’t land twice.
2. Pick your split. Choose a number of teams (say, 4) or a team size (say, 5 people each). If the numbers don’t divide evenly, the extra people spread out so no team is more than one person larger than another.
3. Generate and adjust. Hit the button. Don’t love the result? Reroll. Need Sam and Alex on the same side? Use keep-together. Want them apart? Use keep-apart.

Here’s a quick example of 8 people split into 2 teams:

And the same list of 10 people split into 3 teams, where the remainder has to go somewhere:

What you can do beyond a basic shuffle

Most generators stop at “split these names.” This one does a few extra things people actually ask for.

Split by team size, not just team count. If you need groups of 4 no matter how many people show up, set the size and let the count sort itself out.

Keep certain people together. Pin a pair or a small group to the same team. Useful when two kids need to stay with a support buddy, or when co-workers are running the same demo.

Keep certain people apart. Force names onto different teams. Good for breaking up the two friends who turn every group task into a side conversation.

Spread out captains or leaders. Mark your captains and the tool puts one on each team instead of stacking them.

Numbers mode. No names handy? Split 1 to 30 (or any range) into teams instead. Handy when you’ve assigned everyone a number already.

Export and share. Copy the result as plain text, download a CSV, save a team-card image, or grab a share link that reopens the exact same setup. Nothing gets uploaded. The link just carries your settings.

Who uses it

Teachers splitting a class into project groups without playing favourites. Coaches making pickup sides for soccer or PE class. Managers breaking a workshop into breakout tables. Pub quiz hosts sorting walk-ins into trivia teams. Party hosts setting up game night.

If you’re pairing people two at a time instead of building bigger teams, the random pair generator is built for exactly that.

How the randomization works, and why it’s fair

The tool uses a Fisher-Yates shuffle, a well-tested method that gives every possible ordering the same chance. In plain terms: it walks through your list, and at each spot it swaps in a randomly chosen name from the ones left. No name is favoured, no team is favoured.

Once the order is shuffled, people get dealt into teams one at a time, like dealing cards. That’s what keeps team sizes even when your total doesn’t divide cleanly. Ten people into three teams gives you sizes of 4, 3, and 3. Never 6, 2, and 2.

Constraints run first. If you’ve pinned people together or apart, the tool honours those rules, then randomizes everyone else around them. When a rule can’t be met (say you asked to keep six people together but only made teams of four), you get a plain warning instead of a silent wrong answer.

Everything runs in your browser. Your list of names never leaves your device, which matters if those names are students or staff. You can read more about the method on the about page.