pull (someone or something) out of a hat

To select someone or something entirely at random. I don't understand why our company is being targeted. It's as if the IRS pulled us out of a hat to scrutinize! It doesn't really matter who gets promoted to assistant manager—just pull a name out of a hat for all I care!

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Shabnam	-	Persian, Urdu
Citlali	-	Native American, Nahuatl
Fred	FRED (English, French, Portuguese), FRET (Dutch, German)	English, Dutch, German, French, Portuguese
Alazne	-	Basque
Paden	PAY-dən	English (Rare)
Viktoria	vik-TO-ree-ah (German), veek-TO-ree-yah (Russian)	German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Estonian, Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian