Gransnet forums

Ask a gran

Eye colour

(31 Posts)
Foxglove77 Fri 03-Mar-23 20:02:36

I have blue eyes and my husband has brown eyes. I assumed brown was predominant and our children would have brown eyes too. However our daughter has blue eyes like me and our son has green eyes. Apparently green eyes are rare. Our grand daughter has beautiful green eyes too. What's your experience?

HowVeryDareYou2 Sat 04-Mar-23 17:47:45

My mum had blue, dad had brown. Two of my brothers had brown eyes, one had blue. Mine are green.

pascal30 Sat 04-Mar-23 14:41:35

My mum had hazel eyes, Dad had blue and I have green, Both my DB and DS have blue eyes, as does my son.

TerriBull Sat 04-Mar-23 14:32:45

My dad was quite swarthy being a mix of English and Mediterranean ethnicities, dark brown eyes. My mother, English and Irish, from her mother, English., French and Jewish from her father had blue eyes, which I also have.

My children who started off fairer are now dark haired and have quite a Mediterranean appearance too but with deep blue eyes. My grandchildren have brown eyes from their half Italian mother. My husband's older grandchildren veer towards a Nordic look of blonde hair and blue eyes.

M0nica Sat 04-Mar-23 14:06:10

My family have hazel/green/ grey as family eye colours. My mother had the most glorious deep grey eyes, a colour DD inherited.

DS has a brown eyed wife, ethnically European. My DGD has brown eyes, but DGS has inherited the wonderful ark grey eyes my mother and daughter have. DS has blue eyes, inherited through his father, who also has blue eyes.

downtoearth Sat 04-Mar-23 11:00:53

Ex husband has deep brown eyes, I have green eyes,2 children with deep brown eyes,1 child blue eyes.
Mixed race DGD has brown eyes,and youngest DGD has brown eyes,dads are deep brown, mums are blue.

Maggiemaybe Sat 04-Mar-23 00:27:02

I have green eyes, like my mum, DH’s are hazel. Our three have green, dark brown and hazel eyes, and only one of our five grandsons has green eyes.

dogsmother Sat 04-Mar-23 00:17:58

Bizarre isn’t it? I have three children one each brown, hazel and blue eyed. Two red heads. The hazel eyed has the nondescript mouse colour hair. I was looking for a cow brown eye coloured child like my father. But not to be.

SueDonim Sat 04-Mar-23 00:09:51

I’m not sure I’ll be acquiring any more GC! grin

All of the redheads in the family have brown eyes, apart from one with hazel, and skin that tans, which is also unusual for redheads.

growstuff Fri 03-Mar-23 23:55:08

SueDonim

We’re a family of mainly brown/hazel eyes. My DS’s have hazel eyes, my DD’s have dark brown eyes. Four of my GC have dark brown eyes, one has browny/hazel eyes and the sixth has a mix of blue with a ring surrounding the pupils being hazel! We have all peered in wonder at this blue-eyed baby. smile

Three of my four DC have various tones of red hair, like me. MIL had red hair, too. None of the GC has red hair.

My daughter has red hair, although neither her father or I do. Both my ex-hubby and I must carry red hair genes, but it's recessive, so doesn't show up in us. Strangely, my daughter doesn't have blue eyes, which many red heads have. Her eyes are light brown, which is probably related to my hazel eyes.

Hetty58 Fri 03-Mar-23 23:31:13

SueDonim, never say never. My maternal GM and father had red hair. None in my generation or my kids (all blonde or brown) - and GC - until the seventh, who has the glorious red.

henetha Fri 03-Mar-23 23:24:30

Mine are green. And one of my sons has really very green eyes.

SueDonim Fri 03-Mar-23 21:57:13

We’re a family of mainly brown/hazel eyes. My DS’s have hazel eyes, my DD’s have dark brown eyes. Four of my GC have dark brown eyes, one has browny/hazel eyes and the sixth has a mix of blue with a ring surrounding the pupils being hazel! We have all peered in wonder at this blue-eyed baby. smile

Three of my four DC have various tones of red hair, like me. MIL had red hair, too. None of the GC has red hair.

BigBertha1 Fri 03-Mar-23 21:56:34

My father had hazel eyes my mother had pale blue eyes. I have deep blue eyes as have both my girls despite their fathers having hazel eyes. My grandson has the deepest blue eyes ever and I can never stop admiring them and him.

MiniMoon Fri 03-Mar-23 21:38:58

My mother had blue eyes, my father had brown eyes. Of we three girls one has brown eyes and the other two have hazel eyes.

seadragon Fri 03-Mar-23 21:26:40

I have blue eyes, DH has gorgeous brown eyes as have both our DS and DD. Eldest DGS has blue eyes like mine and his mother's. DGD has hazel eyes like her DD and my Sister.....!? Youngest DGS has huge brown eyes like his DM. The strange thing is his eyes were huge and blue for the first several months just like his DDad.....!

growstuff Fri 03-Mar-23 20:56:27

Blossoming

Thanks growstuff I knew there was a lot more involved but I can only remember the basics.

I only learnt the basics at school - I'm sure you remember we were told that eye colour is like Mendel's peas. It's now known it's more complicated. My mother had very dark brown eyes and my father had blue/grey eyes. It always puzzled me that my sisters and I all have hazel eyes, which is why I bothered to research it years ago.

MerylStreep Fri 03-Mar-23 20:53:42

I have green eyes. This makes sense of my Nigerian friends surprise when we met for the first time.

growstuff Fri 03-Mar-23 20:52:02

SachaMac

I have brown eyes, my husband had blue, I also thought brown would dominate but all of our children have either blue or green eyes. My mum had brown and my dad had blue eyes so I guess I got the blue gene from him. My youngest daughter has very dark hair with green eyes. Three out of my 6 grandchildren have brown eyes.

That's because you probably have a blue gene and a brown gene. The brown gene dominates, which is why you have brown eyes, but you had a 50/50 chance of passing on either gene to your children.

CanadianGran Fri 03-Mar-23 20:48:35

Mine are very dark brown, DH more of a rich brown, and all our children have brown. All my children have married blue-eyes, and DH's father was blue eyed, so we have some bluey grandkids.

Blossoming Fri 03-Mar-23 20:47:10

Thanks growstuff I knew there was a lot more involved but I can only remember the basics.

SachaMac Fri 03-Mar-23 20:39:32

I have brown eyes, my husband had blue, I also thought brown would dominate but all of our children have either blue or green eyes. My mum had brown and my dad had blue eyes so I guess I got the blue gene from him. My youngest daughter has very dark hair with green eyes. Three out of my 6 grandchildren have brown eyes.

growstuff Fri 03-Mar-23 20:35:17

Redrobin Your parents probably didn't have two brown genes. They had brown eyes because it's dominant, but they still had the non-brown gene, which it would appear has been passed on to you.

Redrobin51 Fri 03-Mar-23 20:31:28

Both my parents were brown eyes but I have greenish gry like my grandfather. The two eye colours apart from grandad and me were blue or brown on both sides of the family. My husband wnd two if hus brothers had br8wn eyes like their mother and another had grey green eyes like their father.

growstuff Fri 03-Mar-23 20:30:36

Blossoming

As I recall if you inherit one brown eye gene from one parent and one blue eye gene from the other, you will have brown eyes but you could still pass that blue eye gene to your child. I know there’s probably more to it, but that’s the basic principle.

Yes, that's true. Brown is the dominant gene, so somebody with blue eyes doesn't have a brown gene. The child will have a blue gene and there's a 50/50 chance of passing it on.

However, if you look at the link I posted above, eye colour is more complicated than used to be thought.

Hetty58 Fri 03-Mar-23 20:27:35

I have green eyes (rare worldwide - but not here in the UK) and their father had blue. Our four have - grey, hazel, amber and green!