Where Did the Blue Come From?

Updated on November 09, 2011
✩.!. asks from Boulder, CO
22 answers

I am not good with genetics so hopefully someone can help. I have hazel colored eyes with green being more dominant then the brown. My husband has brown eyes with a small (and I mean small) smidge of green. My maternal grandfather had blue/grey eyes. My husbands mother and sister have blue eyes and his brother has blue/green eyes.

So, my little peanut - who turns 1 tomorrow!!!! - has blue eyes with a small smidge of light brown in the middle. Who did she get the blue from? My husband?

Thanks.

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T.K.

answers from Dallas on

There are dominant genes - brown eyes and recessive genes - blue eyes. We all have the potential to pull a recessive gene. You have blue on both sides, so the recessive gene became somewhat more dominant. You mixed 2 recessive blues and that increased the chances of blue eyes. So the answer is....both

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J.L.

answers from Los Angeles on

It is a combo of both. although eye color is not exactly permenant until around 5 years old. My kids 4 and 6 are changing.

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S.K.

answers from Denver on

If her eyes stay blue she has gotten them from both you and your husband. In order for someone to end up with blue eyes it has to come from both. You carry the blue gene (recessive) and your husband has two recessive blues the only way a person can have blue eyes is if they both are recessive. So you gave your daughter the recessive gene and your husband had no choice and gave her the recessive gene since he doesnt carry the dominant gene. Remember it can take up to 2 years or more for eyes to become the color they will be. My son had these weird greyish blue brown eyes for a while now they are hazel with green more dominant over the blue and i think he finally got those around 3. hope this made sense

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J.P.

answers from Lakeland on

You and hubby are carrying the blue eye gene and passed it to your child. It is this way with my daughter. My hubby and I have brown eyes, so does my mom, MIL and step kids. My father had blue eyes and my FIL had blue/grey eyes.
It seems my older brother, sister and I (from the same parents) are all carrying this gene and only passing it to the girls. My daughter and nieces all have blue eyes, my nephews have brown or hazel eyes.
It’s interesting that some features (like hair, eye color) can come out so many generations later.
Happy 1st B-day!!

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D.A.

answers from San Diego on

Like others had mentioned, there is still a chance of color change. My mom has brown eyes, my dad has blue and I was born with blue and had blue eyes until I was much older, like 8. Then they started turning green and now I have green eyes.

My husband has blue. Our oldest son who is 3 had deep blue eyes until about 6-8 months ago and now they are green similar to mine but more blue. My youngest son who is 1 has bright blue eyes. I hope they stay that color because they are beautiful but we will see.

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M.M.

answers from Washington DC on

YOu and your husband both have a recesive blue eye gene.
So two of them got together and you have a blue eyed baby.

There are black people who have given birth to white babies only to find out way back when one of their ancestors was as white as the driven snow. Usually the babies have more a mulatto skin-tone.
THere have been very white families who have given birth to a child with "black", tight, curly hair.
There was a Discover show on genetics a long time ago. It was fascinating.

You------Brown Eye Blue Eye-------------Brown eyes
Hubby---Brown Eye Blue Eye-------------Brown eyes

Kid 1-----Brown---- Brown ------------ Brown eyes
Kid 2-----Brown ----Blue--------------- Brown Eyes
kid 3------Blue------ Brown------------- Brown eyes
Kid 4-----Blue------ Blue----------------- Blue eyes

Blue is a recessive gene, so if there is a brown eye gene that dominant brown eye gene will take over. The recessive blue eye gene will only show when there are two of them.

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J.L.

answers from Chicago on

The recessive gene decided to be aggressive and dominate! LOL. I am in the same situation...My first two have the bluest eyes I have ever seen and #3 took after Daddy....all brown...Mine are blue green..with my husband's ethnicity I thought for sure it would be brown dominant but nope....

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J.S.

answers from Hartford on

Blue eyes are recessive while the darker colors are dominant. She could have gotten the blue from either one of you but it's more likely that since blue is so uncommon on both sides yet it's on both sides... she got it from both of you.

My middle daughter is like this with blonde hair with reddish highlights. My grandmother's father had blond hair because he had ancestry from Northern Italy. My Gram didn't have the typical dark Italian hair, but auburn, and I have the red highlights in my brown hair. My IL's family must have some family from Northern Italy as well because one of my nieces had blondish hair for a while and my husband's brother had strawberry blond hair as a child. G's toddler pictures look EXACTLY like my Gram except for the blonde hair versus my Gram's auburn hair. So we figure most of the genes came from my Gram and some from my IL's.

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A.S.

answers from Kansas City on

Not a clue, but my grandma likes to tell the story that her oldest had the bluest eyes until he was about 4, then "overnight" they turned to brown. Weird, I know, but she has pictures to back up the story.

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R.B.

answers from La Crosse on

Both of your families have blue.. could have came from either one of you.

My kids have...
green ( both me and his dad have blue, my mom has green)
hazel ( i don't know anyone that has hazel)
blue ( just like my ex and I)
brown ( my hubby has brown eyes)
brown. " "

now on hair color... all of us have brown hair ( my husband had red when younger and turned brown when he turned 18. On my mom's side its dark brown/ black, on my dad's side its brown like mine. On all of the dad's sides its brown... so yeah not sure where the blonde came in to play, but since I have two of them by different dad's with blonde Im guessing its somewhere on my side.)

brown ( wavy like mine)
light/ sandy blonde ( tight kinky curls... no clue where that came from)
light golden brown ( dead straight... like his paternal grandma)
red ( curly like his dad's was)
sandy blonde. ( wavy like mine)

its all a big ol' mess of everyone in our past!

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T.D.

answers from Los Angeles on

In order for a child to have blue eyes, both parents have to carry the recessive gene for blue. Since there are blue eyes on both sides of your family and your daughter, in fact, has blue eyes, that means both of you have the recessive gene.

It's the same with us. My husband and I both have dark brown eyes, but my daughter has electric blue. We get confused comments all the time!

Gotta love genetics!

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S.G.

answers from Los Angeles on

It seems you both passed on the blue. I have green/blue eyes, my husband has brown. But both of our brothers & fathers have blue eyes. Our first two - have brown eyes, our third - blue eyes!!
More info here: http://www.babymed.com/tools/eye-color-predictor

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K.P.

answers from Santa Fe on

In general, in order for a child to have blue eyes, both parents have to pass along a gene for blue since blue is a recessive trait (though I'm sure a geneticist would know exceptions to that "rule"), so it seems like you both would pass along the blue. I also have hazel eyes while my husband has blue eyes, and one of my children has green eyes, and the other has brown eyes (my dad had green, my mom had brown -- I guess they combined in me, and separated in my children? my 3 siblings all have brown). I'm curious to see if any of my children *could* have blue eyes, or if I only have genes for green and brown eyes to give, and both of those are dominant over blue.

In a simplified version, the father gives a gene for eye color, and the mother gives a gene for eye color. Brown is dominant, blue is recessive; I guess brown and green can combine to become hazel, and there are even people who have eyes of two different colors (one green and one brown, e.g.). If a person has blue eyes, he can only pass along the blue-eyed gene to his offspring; but if a person has brown eyes, he may have a recessive blue or green to pass along.

My brother and his wife both have brown eyes, but one of their sons has brilliant blue eyes. My SIL's father has blue eyes, so he passed the gene for blue eyes to her; but her mother has brown eyes, so they were dominant in my SIL and she had brown eyes. Apparently the blue on my brother's side came from my dad's mom (who had blue eyes), passed along as a recessive/hidden trait to my dad (who had green eyes, like his father), and to my brother (who has brown eyes, like my mother), to his son.

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M.L.

answers from Houston on

Blue is a more dominant gene than green, according to new studies. So even though it is technically recessive, it presents as dominant when there is a strong history of blue eyes like in your family. So, the blue eyes came from both sides.

Also, the blue can change any time in children, but usually within the first 2-3 years. I had very blue eyes until I was about 5, then they changed to a grey-green, now they are totally green. Both my children have very blue eyes. My 5 year old is starting to shift to a green now. Their father's side (including both his parents and siblings) all also have blue eyes. My side is hazel and brown, I am the only one with green.

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R.G.

answers from Los Angeles on

All about the gene pool.

Me: hazel brown eyes (my mom is hazel and dad is blue)
Hubby: hazel brown (mom is blue and dad is brown)
Our 2 daughters: Blue eyes! Both of them went the recessive route! I love it - makes them unique in our family. :)

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M.K.

answers from Seattle on

Your child's eye color is likely to change as she grows. Many babies are born with blue eyes and blond hair and pigmentation only kicks in during the first few months or even years.

The genetics of eye pigmentation are a bit too complicated to simply say that it is inherited one way or another, so please understand that I am giving a grossly simplified example here. There are several genes involved and gene expression can be influenced by environmental factors.

Generally alleles for lighter colors (blue and green) are recessive to alleles for brown - so if you have hazel eyes, you may indeed carry some alleles for green or blue color and so may your husband. They are simply not "visible" because the brown alleles overshadow the lighter color. When your child was conceived it is possible that just by pure chance she has inherited more alleles for blue eye color and none for brown... so she has inherited her eye color as a result of a mix of both of your genes.

Hope that helps.

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J.W.

answers from St. Louis on

Incomplete dominance. I have dark brown eyes which can only be achieved with no recessive so no matter who I reproduce with my children will never have blue eyes. My ex has hazel which means he holds the recessive blue with the dominant brown. Three of my four kids are also dark brown, one carries the blue so has more hazel but I would call it lighter brown. Anyway there are varied degrees I only know brown and blue but from what you describe you both have the blue recessive. :)

Oh yeah, someone with blue eyes only carries the recessive blue. It happens.

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S.R.

answers from Los Angeles on

To explain it simply, and I'm no genetics expert, this is just the basics of HS Bio, your peanut got it from both of you.

Since you both have Blue eyes in your family, you both probably carried a recessive Blue eyed gene, and a dominant gene for whatever color your own eyes are. Peanut got BOTH of your recessive Blue genes, which means her eyes are blue. If she only got one of those recessives, her eyes would be brown or hazel or whichever of the dominant genes she would have gotten from the other parent. This is why you see different combinations of brown/blue/greeen among siblings. Kind of the luck of the genetic draw.

(some traits are more dominant than others- brown is dominant over blue so when a child recieves one of each color the brown dominates and shows through. For the recessive blue trait to appear, BOTH parents have to have passed it on.)

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K.F.

answers from Cleveland on

My husband and I both have hazel eyes. Mine are more green and his more brown. BOTH of my kids have blue eyes. My son is almost 3 1/2 and they are still blue. I always thought they would change but they still haven't. He has a brown spot on his eye and I took him to the eye doctor and it's actually a freckle. My daughter just turned a year old and her eyes are still very blue. There are a lot of people with blue eyes on mine and my husbands side of the family.

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J.B.

answers from Los Angeles on

i have blue eyes and so does my daughter. but if you look at all my brothers and sisters they all have brown or hazel eyes. im the only one out of 7 that has blue eyes. my mom has blue eyes.

yes two brown eyed people can have a blue eyed baby. and two blue eyed people can have a brown eyed baby.

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A.G.

answers from Houston on

Some eyes change color, your daughters might turn brown.

I have hazel eyes which is dominant over my husbands light blue but both our daughters have dark blue eyes that stayed past the age of two.

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S.R.

answers from Los Angeles on

Both of you actually! Blue is considered a "recessive" gene and Brown a "dominant" gene. Which means that both you and hubby had to have the blue gene. Usually you only have blue eyes if you inherit the blue from both parents and brown if you inherit one blue and one brown or two brown. However this is "Genetics for Dummies" :) I'm pretty sure that the real way it works is a touch more complicated! I've got eyes which change colour according to my mood (hazel to grey green) no idea how I pull that off! Also my basic knowledge doesn't explain how my daughter ended up being the only one in the family with brown eyes! :) Interesting question tho.

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