Secret Santa Generator — fair draw with exclusions

How to use

1. Paste your group's names into the box, one name per line (at least three names are needed).
2. To keep two people from drawing each other, add no: plus the name on the same line, for example 'Sara no:Omar'.
3. Press the Draw pairs button to run the draw.
4. Check the table it produces: each giver is matched to a receiver - never themselves and never an excluded person.
5. If you see the no-valid-pairing message, relax or remove one exclusion and draw again.
6. Share each person's assignment privately - copy their line into a message or send a cropped screenshot, since the full table is visible only on your screen.

About this tool

A fair draw is a derangement — a permutation with no fixed points — which naive 'pick a random name' gets wrong surprisingly often. This tool builds the pairing with retry-backtracking so exclusions (partners, repeat pairs) are respected, and gives each giver a private reveal code so the organizer doesn't have to DM everyone. Everything happens in your browser; share the results list, not your data.

Drawing names from a hat fails in predictable ways: someone draws themselves, a couple draws each other, and the remote cousin never gets a slip at all. This generator builds what mathematicians call a derangement, an assignment where nobody is paired with themselves, and it respects exclusions you type on the same line as a name using the no: prefix, so partners or last year's pairs never meet again. It needs at least three names, redraws until every rule holds, and tells you plainly when a legal pairing is impossible.

The organizer sees the full giver-to-receiver table on their screen; there are no individual reveal links, so share each person's assignment by copying their line into a private message or sending one cropped screenshot each. Two habits prevent trouble: write exclusions in both directions for mutual rules, since no: blocks only one pairing, and keep spelling consistent with the list. If the tool reports that no valid pairing exists, your exclusions have made a legal draw mathematically impossible; relax one and redraw. Nothing is stored, so each visit starts fresh and a redraw is always an option.

FAQ

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