Secret Santa Name Generator: Draw Names Online, No Email
Type everyone's names, add anyone who shouldn't draw each other, press Draw. Each person gets a private link that shows only who they give to. No email, no sign-up, no names sent to our server.
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1 People Example
Six made-up names and one couple. Nothing is saved.
Four steps
- Add namesType or paste them.
- Rules optionalKeep couples apart.
- Details optionalBudget, date and a note.
- Draw and sendEach person gets a private link.
First time? How to do Secret Santa online shows each step with screenshots.
Paste a whole list
Rows copied from a spreadsheet work too: each row becomes one person, first and last names are joined, and email addresses are left out. You check the names before anyone is added.
Nothing is added until you press Add. Change a name, remove anyone who shouldn't be here, and look under Left out for anything that should be a name.
No one yet.
2 Who shouldn't draw whom Optional
For couples, housemates, or last year's pairs.
Add at least two people in step 1 first. Then choose here who shouldn't draw whom.
Couples on one line with a plus sign, like Anna + Ben, are kept apart automatically.
3 Details Optional
Shown on everyone's card.
This date won't be on the cards. Enter the whole date, with a year from 2000 on.
0 of 200 characters
Their cards will never show ads or shopping links.
4 Draw and send
Links for draw
Your rules allow only one possible draw, so anyone who knows the rules can work out every match. To keep it a surprise, remove a rule or add someone, then draw again.
Send each person only their own link. The pairs aren't shown anywhere on this page, but each link opens that person's match, so if you're taking part, open only your own. Don't show this page to anyone else, even in a screenshot or a screen share: a photo of a link is enough to open it.
Links are left off this printout. Send each person their link from this page.
All links in one message
For your notes, or to forward one at a time. If you post this in a group chat, anyone could open anyone's link.
After sending
This browser keeps the links, so anyone who uses it could open them here. Once everyone has theirs, remove them. You won't see them again; if someone loses theirs, you'll need to draw again.
Links removed from this device
The links for draw (code ) are no longer kept here. They still work for the people you sent them to. If someone lost theirs, draw again and send everyone a new link.
If you copied any of them, they can still be on this device's clipboard, or in its clipboard history if it keeps one. Copy something else to replace them, and delete them from the history.
| You want | How it works here |
|---|---|
| Keep couples apart | Put them on one line with a plus sign, like Anna + Ben. They won't draw each other. |
| Avoid last year's pairs | In step 2, choose who shouldn't give to whom, one way or both ways. |
| No email addresses | Nobody signs up. You send each person their link by WhatsApp, text or email yourself. |
| Use a list you already have | Paste names from a spreadsheet, group chat or email. You check them before anyone is added. |
| The organizer takes part | The page shows links, never who drew whom, so you can draw too. |
| Rules that can't all work | The page names who is stuck before any link is made, so you know which rule to loosen. |
| A redraw | Draw again after a change. An older link says it is out of date on any phone that has opened a newer one. |
| A big group | Up to 200 people in one draw. |
Secret Santa With Exclusions, No Email Needed
Every draw keeps two rules on its own: nobody gets their own name, and nobody learns who drew them. That is how Secret Santa works. Exclusions are the rules you add. Type a couple or a household on one line with plus signs, like Anna + Ben + Leo, and nobody on that line draws anyone else on it. For last year's pairs, or a rule that goes one way only, use step 2. There is a longer guide on how to keep couples and households apart.
Rules can make a draw impossible. With three people where two are a couple, both partners can only give to the third person, who can take only one gift. The page catches this before anyone gets a link and says who is stuck. An odd number of people is never a problem by itself: everyone gives one gift and gets one.
No one types an email address, not even you. After the draw, each person has a private link, and each link has WhatsApp, Text and Email buttons that open your own app with the message written. If your group lives in a chat app, see Secret Santa on WhatsApp for sending each link in a private chat. The draw runs in your browser and nothing is sent to our server: each person's card travels inside their own link.
If everyone may see the whole list, as in a family where parents shop for the younger children, use a gift exchange that isn't secret: the same draw, shown as one table to copy or print. Running one for the first time? The step-by-step walkthrough with screenshots shows every screen, including what to do when someone loses their link.
Secret Santa Generator With Wish List
This generator doesn't hold wish lists. Each card carries the budget, the exchange date and one note from the organizer, the same note for everyone. A wish list doesn't have to be secret, though: only who gives to whom does. So ask everyone to post theirs where the whole group can read it, such as a pinned message in the group chat or a shared document, and use the note to say where: "Wish lists are pinned in the family chat." If people don't know what to ask for, the Secret Santa questionnaire gives everyone the same questions, from sizes to things to avoid, and turns the answers into a short summary to paste into the chat.
Is Using a Secret Santa Generator Free?
This one is. There is no account, no fee, no paid version, no ads and no analytics. The draw runs on your own phone or computer, so there is no database of groups behind it and nothing to charge for. The about page says who makes this generator and how to reach them. If ads ever come, the privacy page will say so first, and cards for a group with children will never carry them.
Secret Santa Name Generator for Kids
Tick This group includes children under 13 in step 3. The mark travels inside every link, and cards that carry it will never show ads or shopping links. A parent or teacher runs the draw and sends each child's link to a parent's phone. A child who can't read yet can have the card read aloud, or printed with its Print this card button. If adults and children should draw separately, each with their own budget, set up a family draw with children.
Secret Santa Generator for Large Groups
A draw holds up to 200 people. If the office party is one where everyone brings a gift and people can steal, you want a White Elephant turn order, not a name draw. For a Secret Santa list, open Paste a whole list and paste a column from a spreadsheet: each row becomes one person, first and last names are joined, and email addresses are left out. You check the names before anyone is added, and a name typed twice is skipped. For budgets and ground rules in an office, see Secret Santa rules for work.
What Is the Best Secret Santa Generator?
The one that fits your group. Before you pick one, check five things:
- Does everyone have to sign up, or hand over an email address?
- Can you keep couples apart, and add a rule that goes one way only?
- Does each person get a private link, or is there one results page that anyone with the address can open?
- What is stored, and where: on the site's server, or only in your browser?
- Can the organizer take part without seeing the pairs?
Wish lists, reminders and anonymous questions need accounts and a server to hold them. This generator does the draw and the private links, and keeps nothing on a server.
Virtual Secret Santa Generator
The draw is already remote: nobody has to be in the same room, and each link opens on any phone or computer. What changes is the gifts. Put what people need to know in the note on every card, for example "Ship by December 10. We open them together on the call on December 18." Mailing addresses can go in the same shared place as the wish lists. For someone in another country, a gift card or a digital gift saves the cost and wait of shipping abroad.
Send Secret Santa Names by Text Message
Every link has a Text button. On a phone, it opens your messages app with the text written: "Hi Anna, here is your Secret Santa link. Open it to see who you are giving a gift to," followed by the link. You pick Anna as the recipient and press send. The message names only the person it's for, never their match. On a computer, if no messages app opens, press Copy link and paste the link wherever you chat.
Send Secret Santa Names by Email
The Email button opens your own email app with the subject "Your Secret Santa link" and the same short message. Add the person's address and send it. The email comes from you, so people know who sent it, and there is no sign-up email to confirm first. The addresses never reach this site: they stay between your email app and theirs.
How to Draw Names for Secret Santa From a Hat Online
With a real hat, everyone draws a folded slip, and anyone who draws their own name puts it back and draws again. The trouble comes at the end: the last person can be left holding their own name, and then everyone starts over. A hat can't keep couples apart either, and anyone who isn't in the room needs someone to draw for them.
Online, nobody can get their own name, the rules you set always hold, and people far away get their link wherever they are. The organizer never sees who drew whom, just as nobody sees inside the folded slips.
Is There a Secret Santa Name Generator Wheel?
There are name wheels, but a spinning wheel shows every result to everyone watching, so the whole room knows who got whom. That suits picking a turn order, not a secret draw. This page gives each person a private link instead.
How to Redraw Secret Santa Names
Someone joins, someone drops out, or a rule was missed: change the list and press Draw again. Everyone gets a new link, and the message with it says which draw it is, such as "draw 2". Send every new link, even to people you expect to keep the same match. A new draw is as random as the first, so some people may get the same person again.
There is no server to switch old links off, so an old link shows as out of date only on a phone or computer that has already opened a newer link from the same group. Tell everyone to open their newest link and ignore any earlier one. If you only mistyped the budget or date, don't draw again: change it back to keep the links, and tell the group the right detail yourself.
Can a Secret Santa Generator Be Rigged?
Not by chance. The shuffle uses your browser's cryptographic random numbers, and among all the draws your rules allow, each one is equally likely. The one exception, very dense rules in a group of more than 16, is described on the privacy page. Nobody can draw themselves, and every rule is checked again before a link is made.
A person could still try. The organizer holds every link and could open any of them, or keep drawing again until their own link shows the name they want. Every card shows its draw number, so a card that says draw 6 tells the group there were five before it. If nobody should hold all the links, ask someone who isn't taking part to run the draw.