We have this game that we play when the whole family gets together. Everyone, from the grandparents, down to the toddlers can play it, and it does not have a number limit. It’s perfect for get-togethers!
And best of all, it takes no prep work, and costs nothing!
This guessing game isn’t just fun for families. It works really well for teen game nights (yes, that’s a thing) and youth group activities. It’s especially good for icebreakers.
Keep Reading To The End For The Online Zoom Version!
What you need.
- Paper cut up in pieces (1 for each person)
- Pens.
- Bowl to put paper in.
- Space to fit everyone.
How to Play.
Everyone picks a name, and writes it down on the piece of paper.
(toddler can whisper name to parent and they write it down for them)
Everyone puts their paper, folded, in a bowl. (they are not allowed to take notes)
One person is designated ‘the reader’.
They read out loud each name, then goes through the names one more time, And that’s it.
no one is allowed to touch the bowl or the names for the rest of the game.
The point of the game is to guess which person picked which name.
The first person to go, picks someone in the group, and asks them if their name is ________________. If they are right, the person joins their group (literally stands up, and sits next to their team captain), and their team goes again. If they are wrong, the person to their left goes.
If a person guesses the Team Captain’s name. That whole group goes to the new Team Captain.
Eventually it will get down to two teams, and trying to remember that last one or two forgettable names.
It is simple, but really fun.
A Sample Of The Name Game:
4 people, Jenny, Peter, Henry, and Mary, are playing with 1 moderator.
They wrote four names: “Harry Potter” “Dolly Parton” “Jessica” and “George Washington”.
- Jenny goes first. “Peter, are you George Washington?”
- Peter: “No”
- Peter goes next: “Mary, are you George Washington?”
- Mary: “Yes”. She stands up and sits next to Peter. Now she and Peter are a team.
- Peter and Mary ask Jenny “Jenny, are you Dolly Parton?”
- Jenny: “No”
- Henry’s turn: “Peter and Mary, are you Harry Potter?”
- Peter and Mary: “Yes” They stand up and join Henry.
- Henry, Peter, and Mary: “Jenny, are you Jessica?”
- Jenny: “Yes. . . That makes Henry Dolly Parton?”
So Henry in the end was the real winner.
As you can tell, it is a game of elimination and deduction. And it is a lot more fun with more people. The best is when nobody remembered your secret name after the moderator read them all out twice. So you get to the end because they can’t guess the name.
How To Play The Name Game
Materials
- Paper cut into pieces for each person
- a pen for each person
- a hat or bowl to put the pieces of paper in after the names are written.
Instructions
- Hand out a small piece of a paper and pen to each person playing. (one person will be the moderator)
- Everyone writes a secret name on their paper.
- The moderator puts all of the papers into a bowl.
- Moderator reads out loud each piece of paper twice while the participants try to remember each name spoken.
- Starting with the participant on the moderator's right, they go around the circle and ask another participant if their secret names is ___________ (one of the names that the moderator read out loud).
- If the participant guessed correctly, the person who's name he guessed, will come sit next to him, and they become a team, and they can guess another person's secret name.
- When they guess wrong, the next participant takes a turn. If they guess the name of the head of a group, the whole group moves and becomes part of the guesser's group.
- The game ends when everyone becomes one big group!
Notes
This is a great game for families of multiple generations (even young ones can play with the help of their older family members). It is a fantastic game for teenagers and youth groups as well.
Online Zoom Version Of The Name Game
Living half-way across the country from my family has made it essential to find games we could play with each other online.
With a few tweaks, this game worked out pretty great.
- Pick a Moderator who everyone will private message their secret name to. Then, with everyone else muted, the moderator will read the names out loud twice.
- In the Online Version, we found it better if they were allowed to take notes. One of the reasons being that there was no way to enforce the ‘no writing things down’ rule. And our first attempt at this game ended with a lot of accusations against the grandpa who won (and took notes). The other reason is that since we could not physically move into groups when names were guessed, everyone keeping their own notes was found to be the most effective way of doing it.
- How To Determine Turns: In a physical group, you would just go in a circle. Online, we picked ‘oldest to youngest’ or ‘first name alphabetical order’. Those options worked best for us.
- Use the private message option to help your teammates make guesses.
Check out other games we love!
Trekking the National Parks (Geography Game)
Sleeping Queens Card Game Review
