Where do green eyes come from?

My eyes. Lean close to the screen. They're very green.

c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...

What many might not realize is that MANY middle eastern and mediterranean people have green eyes. My dad is middle eastern and has blonde hair and green eyes. my brother has green eyes. my boyfriend has green eyes...

i really dont think its all that rare. theres plenty of people with green eyes. i mean how would they know the percent of the population that has green eyes anyways? its not like they go door to door and do a survey on who has green eyes.

We just dont tend to see a whole lot of it in america but that doesnt mean its not in other parts of the world.

reply to post by calihan_12


If I'm honest, I can't remember where I read this but green eyes are really common where races mix. The middle east is central to three different continents so it makes sense that green eyes would happen there. I also have a couple Indian friends with blue/green eyes.

Depending on where you are, green eyes are common. But globally, it's a really small percentage.

green is very different from hazel.

i think mine are hazel but people call them green elthough when you get close.

around the pupil there is an intense sunburst yellow, and the outter iris is a deep blue. so anywhere further then 4 feet away they are green. but thats just an optical illusion of distance + close colours melding. the same principle impressionist painters worked with.

so...are they green? or does that just mean they are hazel?

(yellow + blue = green)

reply to post by 30 Seconds


I wouldn't call them green, but then I'm a snob about green eyes. I would say that they sound beautiful and unusual. I wouldn't call them hazel either. For me hazel implies brownish green. From what you describe, I don't think there is a color for them. That's just how unique yours are.

I wouldnt say it is THAT unique, i wish i had a working camera so i could take a picture. photoshopppppppppp time.

im an artist and have done a study of eyes, only met 1 other person that have the same colour. . .

i did a 30 sec photoshop to an eye image on google. check em out. from far enough away that picture will appear green

Originally posted by asmeone2
My dad, me, and both of my siblings have green eyes, but very dark brown hair.

I think the green eyes/red hair combination is a specific trait most common to Irish people...at least that's what the sterotype is... and that side of my family is from Wales so I'd imagine there could easily be a genetic concentration there.

THough I think that eye color and hair color are two separate traits entirely.

Funny you should say that. My mother had green eyes and very dark hair while my daughter has green eyes and red hair. Our family history (both my mother's side and my father's side) going back 7 generations (it's tough to get back much further than that) is from south Ireland.

One of my nephews is blond with the bluest eyes I've ever seen. Obviously, he's Irish as well, but his mother is a Scot (which is essentially the same thing because the word scot originally meant "inhabitant of Ireland". When the Irish invaded north England and settled there, the English began to call it "land of the scots"). Other than that most of our family have brown eyes, which I think is more typical for Irish. But we all have green hats.

My eyes used to be bright blue until i was about 10 and now I have light green mixed with blue+a little yellow and dark brown hair. They kept changing over time, but when i was younger i remember they were not green AT ALL, ( ihave picstures) they were just blue.. and i never had any bits of yellow/brown in them..but both my parents have brown eyes, i think only my grandma has blueish eyes but thats it from my family how is this possible???

Hey! A thread resurrection.

Yes! I am truly a green eyed Scorpio. I often get comments about my eyes.

reply to post by Annee


Hey...thank you for resurrecting this one...I have just discovered it today, and finally joined because of it. I was born blonde hair, blue eyes. They changed to green and my hair turned a very dark blonde/brown when I was about 10, and haven't changed since. My dad has blue eyes, mom had green. She was adopted, so I do not know anything about her side, but my dad's family has mostly blue eyes.
Since everyone else is doing it, I will post pics (if I can figure out how, lol). A lot of people say I have pretty striking eyes for them to be green instead of blue. My husband has beautiful blue eyes...I wonder what our kids will have?

Had to make a photobucket, but I got them! One is taken in normal light, the other with flash.

s876.photobucket.com...

s876.photobucket.com...

[edit on 3-2-2010 by First Curiosity Last]

Originally posted by First Curiosity Last
reply to post by Annee

 

I was born blonde hair, blue eyes. They changed to green and my hair turned a very dark blonde/brown when I was about 10, and haven't changed since. My dad has blue eyes, mom had green. She was adopted, so I do not know anything about her side, but my dad's family has mostly blue eyes.

Everyone in my mother's line has green eyes (my dad had brown).

We all get remarks and comments about our eyes. Not only are they green (not hazel) - - they're that kind that look right through you. I have learned to temper that part.

My kids dad has those very light blue blue eyes. He is adopted. My oldest daughter who looks most like him does have green eyes - - but sometimes they turn a turquoise color. Very pretty and unusual I think.

My daughter (16mths) has auburn hair. Its looking like it will stay that way. Her eyes were the dk baby blue that babies have when born, but now they are a similar colour to her hair. I will post a couple of pics after work.

I just found this thread, and this community actually, from google.. I was researching eye discussions...since I am very interested in them.
I have been mostly interested in green eyes, and trying to figure out why eyes change colors..I have not finished reading this thread yet, but I wanted to comment anyhow.

I was born with light blonde hair and blue eyes, that has changed...Around the time I was 5 my hair started getting darker and it is now a weird color with every shade of brown you can imagine. My eyes went from blue to grey to green to finally brown which is how they are now, a very light brown/yellow color..But lately Ive noticed them changing, getting more green highlights.

My sister was born with really dark brown eyes,almost black, and now she is 30 and has green eyes, with a brown circle around the iris..

I think we can all say eye genetics are fascinating..I wonder if we will ever finish figuring it all out.

I'm so excited that I found a thread I can REALLY relate too.

I was born with white-blonde hair and blue eyes. But when I was about 4 or so my hair started turning brown and my eyes green. Now at 19 my hair is turning white-blonde again. My hair also turned slightly red at one point.

My maternal grandmother has red hair and brown eyes instead of the typical green. My grandfather has blue eyes and brown hair. My mother has brown eyes and hair and my dad has black hair and green eyes. I read somewhere that brown holds complete dominance for eye color, blue is completely recessive and green is inbetween; recessive to brown but dominant to blue. So according to my personal punnet square I shouldn't have had any chance of having blue eyes but did. So I'm a bit stumped there.

As far as the blonde hair goes I'm completely lost. No one in my family has blonde hair although my brother and I share a genetic mutation which is supposedly repeated ever 5th generation on our father's side. He has darkish brown hair but there is a white streak that runs through one of his eye brows and up into the front of his hairline. As for me there is a circle around my mouth where the pigmentation is much lighter and any hair growing in that area is white instead of black. I've wondered if my hair changing back to white-blonde could be an alternation of the mutation.

In short, we're just a genetic mess.

[edit on 10-6-2010 by tealhawk2013]

im brazilian, but i dont look 'latina'
or something like that, im from the extreme south of brazil, there are a lot european imigrants here, especially german and italian..

my grand-grand mother [my fathers family] was irish, but i dont know anything about my parents family past..
my dad hav very dark green eyes, body full of freckles and have white hair [he hav white hair since he was 30]
my mom is 'normal' dark hair, her skin is white, but as much as mine.. and brown hair.. her family hav portuguese and italian descendence

i hav auburn/brown hair, rly light green eyes.. and freckles in my face and arms.. so when people see me, they think im foreign.. my brother hav white skin like mine, very dark brown eyes and very dark hair..

Interesting thread...

I have green eyes - range in shade from emerald to light green, but mostly emerald. They've been this color since birth.

Wavy medium brown hair...was born dirty blond and hair darkened around 6 or 7 years old.

Its true and unfortunate that green eyes only accounts for 2% of the worlds population and generally speaking here, that green eyes are commonly found in Ireland, Scotland and Germany (mainly in Northern and Central Europe). Another known fact about the rarity of green eyes is that it occurs more frequently in females than in males. Don't ask me why that is but it happens. Anywho, while i was scrolling through this thread i came across an interesting discussion about family members having green eyes, hazel eyes and even these strange orange/golden eyes known as 'amber'. Before i tell you something interesting about the topic (which i have to say is a theory of mine, however, it your choice whether or not to believe it).

First up! Both of my parents have green eyes (mum has bright green eyes and she comes from Irish and Germany ancestry, my dad has olive coloured green eyes, he has Scottish and Irish family members). My dad's mum also has green eyes similar to my dads. Now for all you nerds/science people out there who known what i'm talking about when i say genetics and the old Brown over Green, and Green over Blue (dominant vs recessive eye colour theory). It doesn't explain everything or anything when it comes to amber eyes, violet or even red albino eyes. In fact, i dare say this, amber eyes are a form of mutation. Now your probably wondering if i'm mad or not (i am for a matter of fact AM) but truthfully, its the only logical explanation. Amber eyes are a mutation of green eyes (no not BROWN EYES, green!) and now i'm going to prove it...

Firstly, I myself have amber coloured eyes (in horrible lighting they are medium brown/orange looking but in sunlight they look orange to a golden yellow colour). Secondly, as said previously both of my parents have green coloured eyes, which carries a certain pigment called lipochrome. This specific pigment is found in amber eyes which gives it is orange or yellow/goldish colour in the iris. Green eyes also contain a slight percentage of brown. Another thing to add, is about my brother. My brother has light grey eyes which change colour depending on the lighting (light blue to greenish-blue), his eyes also contain cracks of lipochrome (yellow colouring) in them.

May i ask before i continue on in my madness, to those people out there that have green coloured eyes, are they FULLY green? No brown, no yellow around the pupil or anything strange? or even a orange around the pupil. The reason why i ask this is because i don't know anyone with pure green coloured eyes... the same solid colour all the way through... no sign of Heterochromia.

Lastly, to wrap up this discussion, i have a greenish-grey ring around my left amber eye (you can't see it so much in the right eye)... hopefully i have persuaded a few of you to think about the genetics behind green eyes and how they link with amber eyes.
If your still reading i would like to say thank you for taking the time to do so
P.s For all those who care and i might as well put it out there, the origins of violet coloured eyes is connected to albinonism (which is a mutation). However, violet eyes are the product of a mutation within a mutation of an albino... so instead of having no pigment in their eyes, hair and skin, they have dark coloured hair, violet eyes and their still quite pale... (poor things)

reply to post by greeneyedleo


my family is scottish and think i am a freak as both my mother and sister have deep blue eyes and my eyes are deep green .

all my life people have commented on my eyes i just did not know that green eyes were that unusual

My eyes change shades of green all the time, depending on my mood and what I eat. When I took Iodine and magnesium supplements they started to get silvery looking. I quit taking the two and they went back to green, once in a while they get hazel colored for no apparent reason. They are back to green within days.

Got to hide the green eyes if they start burning witches again. The biggest reason there aren't a lot of people with green eyes is because many were burned at the stake years ago....anyone with green eyes.

reply to post by rickymouse


i remember that guy uri geller coming out with the line that green and blue eyed people were not from this earth makes you think