The Hidden Links Between Eye Color & Ancestry… Hazel, Blue, Brown etc.
Video Overview & Insights
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Blue central heterochromia. You didnt cover that.
The Hidden Links Between Eye Color & Ancestry… Hazel, Blue, Brown etc.
Chapters:
Blue eyes , germanic last name. My brother has red hair though.
0:00 Intro
0:56 Brown Eyes (& Black Eyes?)
,I have grey-blue eyes my father's ancestry is Norwegian
2:38 Blue Eyes
5:01 Hazel Eyes
green hazel and scottish predominantly. 🏴🤍 Mcfarland aka Macfarlane
6:11 Amber Eyes
7:22 Green Eyes
Green eyes.....Cretan, Spartan descent
9:01 Gray Eyes
What if your eye color holds a secret, passed down through thousands of years of ancestry? From icy blue eyes in Northern Europe to deep hazel tones in Iberia, every shade tells a story. So in this video we are going to explore the fascinating links between ancestry and eye color.
I have hazel eyes. I'm guessing they are a genetic gift from my Cornish great-grandmother, and the Cornish link to Iberia, where hazel eyes dominate.
Now this table shows a breakdown of eye colors across the globe. As you can see, brown is by far the most common, at around 70-80% of the worlds population. Depending on the source, either gray or green eyes is considered the rarest eye color on earth. And let me know your eye color and ancestry in the comments below. Now varying levels of melanin is the main driver of your eye color, which is largely driven by genetic mutations in the OCA2 & HERC2 genes. Gender also seems to influence eye color to some degree. Various studies have shown that men are more likely to have blue eyes than women, which could be linked to higher estrogen levels.
Now let’s look at the different eye colors and their ancestral links. First up is brown eyes, the original human eye color. This color is a result of a very high amount of melanin in the iris, a protective pigment that helps shield the eyes from ultraviolet (UV) radiation. From an ancestral perspective, brown eyes have always been advantageous near the equator, most notably in Africa of course. This higher concentration of melanin in brown eyes offers much more protection against intense sunlight than say blue eyes. Now you sometimes see people refer to black eyes, but from a biological perspective, these are typically extremely dark brown. While they may appear black to the naked eye, under strong lighting, they usually reveal brown or reddish tones.
My eyes is Gray 🩶 whit pigment green 💚 blue 🩵 And golden 💛.
I am from România
Now look at this table.
Sources:
Black chestnut brown
Blonde brown hair with auburn highlights
Irish, Scotfish and English
The World's Population By Eye Color - WorldAtlas
Keyser, C., Bouakaze, C., Crubézy, E. et al. Ancient DNA provides new insights into the history of south Siberian Kurgan people. Hum Genet 126, 395–410 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00439-009-0683-0
Considering alot of Europeans also have Neanderthal dna, I wonder if part of the reason for the color differences is hybridization with other hominid species.
Faith Erin Cain, Kyoko Yamaguchi - Effect of iris pigmentation of blue and brown eyed individuals with European ancestry on ability to see in low light conditions after a short-term dark adaption period Effect of iris pigmentation of blue and brown eyed individuals with European ancestry on ability to see in low light conditions after a short-term dark adaption period | bioRxiv
All About Brown Eyes
My eyes are Hazel, but I am Lithuanian, and I very often hear that I do not fit into the regular Lithuanian description. Even my sons say that I look like a French. They have blue eyes.
What Causes Hazel Eyes?
Blue eyed see better in the dark Blue Eyes | Liverpool John Moores University (ljmu.ac.uk)
I have brown eyes, im 70%chinese & 25%Irish,Scottish,Welsh and 5%Breton
Blue Eyes: How Rare Are They? | Warby Parker
Cheddar Man: Mesolithic Britain's blue-eyed boy | Natural History Museum
I have grey / green eyes. Both my parents have blue eyes, and are Greek, actually were called Ellenists, and our country is still called Ellatha. Greek was a name Roman’s gave us, and we were around way before Rome was, going back 3000 bc to Crete as Minoans. Not sure what my / my parents eye color says about me
James Fong et al. Novel color via stimulation of individual photoreceptors at population scale. Sci. Adv. 11, eadu1052 (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adu1052
Blue ... Irish 🇺🇲🇨🇮
Interesting facts about green eyes | Glasses Direct Blog
Eye color - Wikipedia
تعال الى الجزائر ترى العجب الشعر الاحمر العين الزرقاء بعضنا يشبيه الوندال والبعض الرمان.والبعض الروس والسلاف.كول الأمم في الجزائر شمال افريقيا
Amber Eyes: How Rare Are They? | Warby Parker
Eye color and the prediction of complex phenotypes from genotypes Liu, Fan et al. (2009) Current Biology, Volume 19, Issue 5, R192 - R193
Grey eyes and A- blood and dirty- blonde, wavey hair and light olive skin.Celtic French and Irish, Dutch, Scots, Portugese...in that order...multi gen. Canadian...
How Rare Are Grey Eyes? | Warby Parker
Celtic History Decoded: Iberian DNA and the Evolution of Hazel Eyes… - YouTube
Anses TOR. Ances TRY.
Creative Commons Imagery:
Lofy40 File:Traditional clouths berbère chaoui.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons
I have grey with brown heteochromia
8thstar at English Wikipedia. File:A blue eye.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons
Geni CC-BY-SA File:Cheddar Man upper body.JPG - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons
Green Grey Blue no L1 at all it's the rarest of them all if my eyes are Grey run, Green everything is normal, Blue I'm happy. Lol😂
User:Rapaceone File:Hazel Eye HD.JPG - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons
Brazilianboy94 File:Amber-eyes.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons
amber eyes here. I wonder where I got them from ...
Martin Mystère File:Gray eye, Northern Italy.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons
I have hazel-green eyes but there’s no Spanish or Middle Eastern descent; my background is mainly Scottish and Irish and Dutch with a bit of Central Europe. Even had my dna tested-where did these eyes come from??? 😮
#eyecolor #ancestry #dna
I always thank my father for giving me grey eyes. Then again he gave me incredibly poor eyesight so screw you old man (lol I joke, RIP you nearsighted mf lol)
More User Perspectives
I have silver Grey eyes.
@Shawn-w2n9wGreen
@jjljjl7762My mother and grandma had green eyes. Grandma 100 percent native and mother half scottidh and native. I have one aqua marine and one purple blue eye
@karram6735wait you want to tell me that according to my color eyes (light green)and my blood type,most probably am Irish,Celtic or Scottish viking era peoples?but am from Balkan and according to your informations me and my family are not from Balkans,by the way side of my mother they are with green eyes and side of my father is blue eyes with some rare possibility that i have two people in my family who have a brown eyes for the rest they all have green/blu or just green or just blue variations,i don't understand
@andrijaognjThe eyes you showed as hazel aren't hazel. That was an example of central heterochromia.
@BrùsUilMacFhearghuisGreen Eyes
Ancestry:
Irish, Scottish, English, Czechoslovakian, German, Netherlands + a fun one (Italian-Indian)
Most of our family has blue eyes with a very small brown eyed percentage in boys. My mom and I carry the green eyes...
Living in South Africa😊🎉
I have green eyes with a golden sunburst around my pupil and a blue sunburst around the very rim of my pupil. The green eyes come from my paternal side which is heavily Germanic; Germany, Bavaria, Austria.
@justforfunsies5000I was born with blue eye but as I got older they changed to green and have been green ever since I was around 12 years old. I am 48% German and I have vikings and German in my ancestry.
@lindacreater7465My eye colour is elusive and hard to pin down.
In some light conditions they look blue, but in others they look grey.
I have dark brown hair and most of my family tree consist of Swedes for a couple of generations, with one woman from Austria who married my great, great grandfather on my mothers side.
Grey eyes. English/Scottish/Irish/Scandinavian/German/Jewish
@bryanedwards9888I have central heterochromia, blue on the outside, green and a bit of gold around my iris. I’m mostly Eastern European with some Western European and a sprinkle of Irish. My husband and my sons all have grey eyes.
@ElvaAnneEveryone on my moms side has brown eyes, we are Scottish ,English and some Dutch
@North_sea_saxondouble brown two different shades of brown/gold and a starburst pattern i think its centrel and sectoral hetrochromia has tiger blue and green streaks green in the yellow part
@rndea100African isss meeeee😊
@JuliusIgbinuduI have mainly green eyes that show blue on occasion. I have ancestry in the British isles and France. I am not too sure about some of the particulars but I am roughly 50% Celtic , 20% Gaul, and about 30% Anglo. More or less.
@ThePzycoDica54I have green eyes. My dad has grey and my mum has dark brown.
@jodieleestudioI have hazel eyes. My mother had brown eyes and my father had blue eyes. Both were German and immigrants to North America.
@ritagerstheimer6421Grey
@justinmccartney1066Great video - keep them coming :) Me and my Wife have blue eyes, one of my daughters has blue and the other has green.
@davidkerr82i have green eyes. My dad had blue eyes. My mom had brown eyes. My 3 siblings--brown eyes. My elder daughter has green eyes. They were blue until shortly before her 4th birthday. During a three week period, they went back and forth between blue, green, and gray, finally settling on green. My main ancestry, per FTDNA is 65% England, Wales, and Scotland and 23% Scandinavia.
@lynnhotchkiss6932Meu pai era português e tinha olhos ambar.
@criscris6491Gray eyes, light brown hair. 80% British/ Welsh/ Scottish, 20% German
@jesswiedmani have 2 grandparents with brown eyes one on each side and two with blue eyes also one on each side . my parents both have green eyes , i have brown eyes but my four siblings have blue eyes , my son has hazel eyes .
i am a B- bloodline
I am O Rh-negative, have hazel eyes, red hair, come from northern Germany and have ancestors in Brittany.
@schnodderbacke6675Green eyes for me , O RH negative blood type 100% British DNA 56% southern England and the rest Welsh/scottish mix
@barbarapowell5515Intersting! I have green eyes, though in certain lights they can look blue. I am slightly more than a third English, slightly less the 1/3 Celtic and the rest other Northern European with possibly 19% Scandinavian (Viking). Although my eyesight is poor I am fairly good at seeing in very low light. My father's eyes were grey and my mother's brown. My four siblings had brown or hazel eyes although my eldest sister had red hair and amber eyes. As a young person I had red hair. One of my sons has blue eyes and red hair.
@judithbrooksbank3433Very light blue eyes in my recent Dutch ancestry and myself; my children inherited their father's dark brown Central European (Jewish) eyes, but had blue eyes for the first year of their lives. 🤔
@mehere1-48I've been told countless times that I have unusual coloured eyes. They are not blue or grey but a mix of the two, with a dark ring on the outside of the irises and lighter grey on the inside, but close up, there are flecks of yellow and brown spots. My ancestry is Anglo-Celtic, with Scottish, Welsh, Irish, English and Norse in the genetic mix. I also have very fair skin without freckles and my hair when I was young was dark brown with an undertone of red. I inherited my eye colour from my mother, who in turn inherited the same from her mother, who had Scandinavian ancestry from Norway. My light skin and dark hair was inherited from my father and his mother before him, who was Scottish and from Aberdeenshire. My grandparents on my father's side were both Scots and had light blue eyes. My father has light blue eyes, which would have been an unusual combination with dark brown hair that wasn't fair off black when he was a young man.
@Nessa_Spence