Random Team Generator for a List of Names

Paste names one per line, set the number of teams and press Shuffle. The list is mixed at random and dealt out so no team is more than one person bigger than another.

Runs in your browserFree, no sign-upLast reviewed October 8, 2026

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Quick answers

How do I randomly split a list of names into teams?: Put each name on its own line, set the number of teams and press Shuffle. The list is shuffled and dealt round the teams in turn, so where a name sits in your list has no bearing on its team and the sizes come out even.
What happens if the names do not divide evenly?: The leftover people are spread one each across the first teams, so sizes differ by one at most. Ten names in 3 teams gives 4, 3 and 3. Twenty-five names in 4 teams gives 7, 6, 6 and 6. The Balance panel shows the largest and smallest team.
How do I make random pairs?: Set Number of teams to half the number of people. Ten names in 5 teams gives five pairs. With an odd count, one team has a single person or, if you round the team count down, one team has three. The limit of 20 teams means pairs work for up to 40 people.
How many teams can I make?: Between 2 and 20 in one shuffle. There is no fixed cap on the number of names, but every team must get at least one person, so 6 teams needs at least 6 names.
Is a random team split fair?: It is unbiased: nobody chooses, and the order you typed the names in gives no one an advantage. It is not guaranteed to be evenly matched. Chance can put the three strongest players together, so for competitive games shuffle within ability tiers instead.

About Random Team Generator

This tool splits a list of names into 2 to 20 random teams. It shuffles the whole list, then deals the names out one at a time, team by team, like dealing cards. That means the sizes are always as even as the numbers allow: 8 people in 3 teams gives 3, 3 and 2, never 4, 3 and 1. You can type your own team names, such as Red and Blue, or leave the default Team 1, Team 2 labels. The result appears as a table and as plain text you can copy or download. It balances headcount only; it knows nothing about skill, age or who should be kept apart.

Team sizes for common group sizes

The sizes this tool produces for a given number of people and teams. Bigger teams are listed first because the extra people go to the first teams.

People	2 teams	3 teams	4 teams	5 teams	6 teams
9	5, 4	3, 3, 3	3, 2, 2, 2	2, 2, 2, 2, 1	2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1
10	5, 5	4, 3, 3	3, 3, 2, 2	2, 2, 2, 2, 2	2, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1
12	6, 6	4, 4, 4	3, 3, 3, 3	3, 3, 2, 2, 2	2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2
15	8, 7	5, 5, 5	4, 4, 4, 3	3, 3, 3, 3, 3	3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2
16	8, 8	6, 5, 5	4, 4, 4, 4	4, 3, 3, 3, 3	3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2
20	10, 10	7, 7, 6	5, 5, 5, 5	4, 4, 4, 4, 4	4, 4, 3, 3, 3, 3
22	11, 11	8, 7, 7	6, 6, 5, 5	5, 5, 4, 4, 4	4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3
24	12, 12	8, 8, 8	6, 6, 6, 6	5, 5, 5, 5, 4	4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
25	13, 12	9, 8, 8	7, 6, 6, 6	5, 5, 5, 5, 5	5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
28	14, 14	10, 9, 9	7, 7, 7, 7	6, 6, 6, 5, 5	5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 4
30	15, 15	10, 10, 10	8, 8, 7, 7	6, 6, 6, 6, 6	5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Which people land on which team changes with every shuffle; the sizes do not.

The rule behind the team sizes

base size = floor(people / teams); the first (people mod teams) teams get one extra person

With 22 people and 4 teams, 22 / 4 is 5 remainder 2, so every team gets 5 and the first two teams get a sixth person: 6, 6, 5, 5. When the division is exact the remainder is 0 and all teams match. Because of this rule the largest and smallest team can never differ by more than one.

Example shuffles

Real results from the tool. A new shuffle of the same list gives a different arrangement with the same sizes.

Eight people, two teams

Names: Alex, Jordan, Taylor, Casey, Morgan, Riley, Jamie, Skyler. Number of teams: 2

Team 1: Casey, Jordan, Morgan, Taylor. Team 2: Alex, Riley, Jamie, Skyler

Largest team 4, smallest team 4.

The same eight in three teams

Same names. Number of teams: 3

Team 1: Casey, Riley, Taylor. Team 2: Alex, Morgan, Skyler. Team 3: Jordan, Jamie

8 / 3 leaves a remainder of 2, so two teams get three people and the last gets two.

Custom names for only some teams

Same names. Number of teams: 4. Custom team names: Red, Blue

Red: Casey, Morgan. Blue: Alex, Jamie. Team 3: Jordan, Taylor. Team 4: Riley, Skyler

Teams without a custom name keep the numbered label.

Ten people into pairs

Names: Ava, Ben, Cara, Dev, Ella, Finn, Gia, Hugo, Ivy, Jack. Number of teams: 5

Team 1: Gia, Hugo. Team 2: Ella, Finn. Team 3: Ivy, Dev. Team 4: Ava, Cara. Team 5: Ben, Jack

Half as many teams as people gives pairs.

Eleven people, three teams

Names: Ava, Ben, Cara, Dev, Ella, Finn, Gia, Hugo, Ivy, Jack, Kai. Number of teams: 3

Team 1: Ivy, Hugo, Jack, Dev. Team 2: Ben, Ava, Gia, Kai. Team 3: Finn, Cara, Ella

Sizes 4, 4 and 3.

How to get groups of a set size

The tool asks for a number of teams, not people per team. Divide to convert one into the other.

Groups of 2 (pairs): teams = people / 2. Twenty people, 10 teams.
Groups of 3: teams = people / 3. Twenty-four people, 8 teams of three.
Groups of 4 from 22 people: 22 / 4 is 5.5. Choose 6 teams for groups of 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, or 5 teams for 5, 5, 4, 4, 4.
Round the team count up when groups must not exceed the target size, and down when they must not fall below it.
If the answer is more than 20 teams, split the list in two and shuffle each half separately.

How the shuffle works

The names are mixed with a Fisher-Yates shuffle, the standard method for putting a list into a random order where every ordering is equally likely. The shuffled list is then dealt out: first name to the first team, second name to the second team, and so on, returning to the first team after the last. The order you typed the names in has no effect on who ends up together.

Each press of Shuffle starts the random sequence from a new point, so repeated shuffles of the same list give different teams. The randomness comes from a general-purpose pseudo-random generator. That is entirely adequate for picking sides in a class, a training session or a games night, but this is not a certified draw system, and it keeps no record of past shuffles. If people need to trust the result, shuffle once in front of them and keep that outcome.

When you need evenly matched teams, not just even numbers

A random split balances headcount and nothing else. If ability matters, sort your players into tiers first, for example strongest third, middle third and newest third. Run each tier through the tool separately with the same number of teams, then combine Team 1 from each tier, Team 2 from each tier and so on. When each tier divides evenly by the number of teams, every final team gets the same number of people from each tier, and who exactly they get is still left to chance. When a tier does not divide evenly, its extra people always go to the first teams, so move the odd person across by hand if the combined sizes drift apart.

The same trick works for any attribute you want spread evenly: mix departments at a workshop by shuffling each department on its own, or separate year groups in a school club.

Using Random Team Generator

1
Type or paste the people into Names (one per line). Blank lines are ignored and spaces around a name are trimmed.
2
Set Number of teams to anything from 2 to 20. You need at least as many names as teams.
3
Optionally fill in Custom team names (optional), one per line, in the order the teams should be labelled.
4
Press Shuffle to see the Teams table, then press it again whenever you want a different split of the same list.
5
Copy the Plain text lines or download them as teams.txt to paste into a chat, slide or email.

Common questions

Can I paste names separated by commas?

No. The tool reads one name per line, so a line such as Ava, Ben, Cara is treated as a single person. Put each name on its own line first. Pasting a column copied from a spreadsheet works as it is.

What happens if the same name appears twice?

Each line counts as a separate person, so a repeated name is placed twice and may land on the same team as itself. Add a surname initial to tell two people apart, or remove duplicates before shuffling.

How do custom team names get assigned?

In order. The first line of Custom team names labels the first team, the second line the second, and so on. If you list fewer names than teams, the remaining teams keep their numbered labels: with two custom names and four teams, the last two are Team 3 and Team 4. Extra names beyond the team count are ignored.

Can I choose the number of people per team instead?

Not directly. Divide the number of people by the size you want and enter that as the number of teams. The Balance panel then confirms the largest and smallest team so you can check the sizes are what you expected.

Can I keep two people apart or lock someone to a team?

No, there are no constraints of that kind. A practical workaround is to leave the fixed people out of the list, shuffle everyone else, then add each fixed person to their team by hand.

Does it balance teams by skill or gender?

No. It only evens out the number of people. To spread an attribute evenly, shuffle each group separately with the same number of teams and merge the results, as described above.

Can I use it for something other than people?

Yes. Any list of lines works: topics to share among study groups, chores among housemates, or fixtures among pitches. The tool treats every line as one item to deal out.

Are the names I enter uploaded anywhere?

No. The shuffle runs in your browser and the names stay on the page. Nothing is saved, so copy or download the teams before you leave if you need them later.