How it works
A fair draw, and a secret kept.
What Namefold does when you press Draw, what each person can see, and what is kept and for how long.
The draw
Every person gets exactly one person to buy for, and every person is bought for exactly once. Nobody ever draws themselves.
Namefold uses the server's secure random generator (the same kind of randomness used for passwords). It shuffles the whole list, checks the result against every rule, and keeps the first shuffle that passes. Each shuffle is equally likely, so a draw found this way is a fair pick among all the draws that keep your rules. When your rules are so tight that 3,000 shuffles in a row fail, Namefold switches to a careful search that tries recipients in random order until every rule holds. That search is still random, but then not every possible draw is equally likely.
If your rules leave no possible draw (say, one person is kept apart from everyone else), Namefold tells you who or what is in the way instead of guessing.
The rules you can set
Keep two people apart
Pick any two people. Neither will draw the other. Use it for couples, roommates, or the two cousins who already swapped presents in July.
No swaps
If Ana draws Ben, Ben will not draw Ana. Nobody simply trades gifts with the person who bought for them.
One loop
Everybody is linked in one chain: Ana gives to Ben, Ben to Cleo, and so on, until the last person gives back to Ana. Good for opening presents one after another.
Who sees what
| Organizer page | A person's own link | |
|---|---|---|
| Names, date, budget, note | Yes | Yes |
| Everyone's private links | Yes | No, only their own |
| Who has opened their envelope | Yes | Their own envelope's record: first opened, how many times its match was shown, last shown |
| Who drew whom | No (unless "Show the full list" is turned on; every envelope then says so) | Only their own match |
| Wish lists | No | Their own, and the one written by the person they drew |
Each private link is a long random code (26 characters), so links cannot be guessed. Namefold stores only a scrambled fingerprint of each link; the organizer page can show the links again because they are kept locked with the organizer's own link.
The organizer page never lists the matches or the wish lists. But the organizer holds every link, because they are the one who sends them out, and a link opens for whoever has it: an organizer could open someone's envelope. So every envelope keeps a record that anyone opening it can see: when it was first opened, how many times its match has been shown since the draw and when it was last shown, when its link was replaced, and whether the full list was turned on. If the record shows more than you did, someone else looked.
Send each link only to its person. If a link goes astray, make a new one from the organizer page: the old one stops working at once, and the envelope keeps its record of earlier openings. If someone looked who should not have, the organizer can draw again. Drawing again is a fresh random draw, so some people may get the same person again.
Links, texts and cards
Namefold sends no email and no texts. You copy each link and send it your way, or print fold-over cards: each card shows the person's name on the front and a QR code under a flap. They scan it with their phone camera and see their match alone.
What is kept, and for how long
- The exchange, its names, rules, draw and wish lists are deleted automatically 30 days after the exchange date (120 days after you made it if there is no date).
- With Plus you can choose Keep for next year: it is kept 400 days after the date, so next year's draw can skip this year's pairs. The new exchange that next year's draw makes follows the normal schedule unless you choose Keep for next year on it too.
- You can delete everything yourself at any time from the organizer page.
The privacy page has the full list.