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What colour eyes my daughter will have?

I have light brown eyes and my partner who’s pregnant has light green eyes so what colour eyes would my baby girl end up having?
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Kindred
20
Original post by Anonymous
I have light brown eyes and my partner who’s pregnant has light green eyes so what colour eyes would my baby girl end up having?


Brown and green eyes are like a layer of pigment over blue eyes. That pigment is dominant over just plain ol' blue, so with both of you having that pigment there is theoretically a strong chance of her having green or brown eyes.

[what I say from this point on is a simplified (and probably quite messy) explanation of complicated science. It should be close enough to not be wrong, but any real scientist would slap me for how I explain it].

Eye colour is a bit of a lottery though because there are multiple genes in play. You might have brown eyes because you have a single brown and a bunch of blue genes. In that case the dominant brown would appear because it sits on top of all those blue. Your partner may have green for the same reason.
You don't pass on all your genes when making a baby though. Each sperm packs a bag with whatever genes they can carry and that only includes some eye genes. Those some are added to the egg's some and makes your baby's whole.

So, if you did have that pile of blue each, both the sperm and egg involved could have decided to only take blue. In that case, there would be no brown or green to sit on them so your little girl would end up having blue eyes.

If either of you give a brown or green gene though, your little girl should end up with some shade of brown or green. Since you both have brown or green (and thus at least one lot of brown/ green pigment), there should be a stronger chance of any children you have getting the genes needed for brown or green eyes. It only takes one of you passing on that gene so the two of you having it gives basically double odds.

So yeah basically after all that, it's still a total mystery and you'll have to wait until she's born to find out. So try to avoid giving her a name based on her eye colour until you see her. :tongue:

Congratulations btw :smile:
Reply 2
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Anonymous #1
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Original post by Kindred
Brown and green eyes are like a layer of pigment over blue eyes. That pigment is dominant over just plain ol' blue, so with both of you having that pigment there is theoretically a strong chance of her having green or brown eyes.

[what I say from this point on is a simplified (and probably quite messy) explanation of complicated science. It should be close enough to not be wrong, but any real scientist would slap me for how I explain it].

Eye colour is a bit of a lottery though because there are multiple genes in play. You might have brown eyes because you have a single brown and a bunch of blue genes. In that case the dominant brown would appear because it sits on top of all those blue. Your partner may have green for the same reason.
You don't pass on all your genes when making a baby though. Each sperm packs a bag with whatever genes they can carry and that only includes some eye genes. Those some are added to the egg's some and makes your baby's whole.

So, if you did have that pile of blue each, both the sperm and egg involved could have decided to only take blue. In that case, there would be no brown or green to sit on them so your little girl would end up having blue eyes.

If either of you give a brown or green gene though, your little girl should end up with some shade of brown or green. Since you both have brown or green (and thus at least one lot of brown/ green pigment), there should be a stronger chance of any children you have getting the genes needed for brown or green eyes. It only takes one of you passing on that gene so the two of you having it gives basically double odds.

So yeah basically after all that, it's still a total mystery and you'll have to wait until she's born to find out. So try to avoid giving her a name based on her eye colour until you see her. :tongue:

Congratulations btw :smile:


My dad has light blue eyes and my has dark brown eyes. My partners father has dark brown eyes and her mother has dark green eyes so do you think are parents eye colour could make an influence?

Thank you very much!!
Reply 3
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Kindred
20
Original post by Anonymous
My dad has light blue eyes and my has dark brown eyes. My partners father has dark brown eyes and her mother has dark green eyes so do you think are parents eye colour could make an influence?

Thank you very much!!


To at least some extent. Your parents eye colour gives an idea of what genes that have that they could have given to you and thus what genes you could have to be giving you your baby.
Your dad has blue which suggests he only has blue genes so could have only given you blue genes. Your mum has brown which suggests you got your colour from her, but it's not clear if she gave you any blue.
Your partners parents both had brown or green which means your partner is less likely to have had any blue passed to her since her parents had less blue genes to have passed to her.

Given the strong brown/ green on your partner's side it seems pretty likely she will pass on at least one brown or green gene which would mean your daughter is more likely to have brown or green eyes.

But the science is a bit more complicated than that and it's just probability given both you and your partner could have and pass on blue genes still. So your daughter could still have blue eyes, it's just more likely she'll have some shade of brown or green.
Does it matter?
Reply 5
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Anonymous #1
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Original post by bloodredbeat
Does it matter?


Then why put a pointless comment?
Original post by Anonymous
Then why put a pointless comment?


I was only asking if it mattered what colour eyes she has...? It wasn't a pointless comment, it was a question.

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