To think dark brown eyes aren’t common in white British people

[Runaway3444]

Ds1 has dark brown eyes and due to his skin tone people just assume he’s white British rather than having a Middle Eastern father. My other children have a darker skin tone so people believe them. Aibu to think most people with dark brown eyes are usually from minority ethics background.

Around 22% of British people have brown eyes. So it’s a rarer colour than either blue (48%) or green (30%), but as it’s nearly a quarter of the population I wouldn’t describe it as genuinely rare.

If you specifically mean very dark, almost black, eyes, then I agree that is more rare than regular brown eyes and is quite uncommon in white British people.

What a bizarre thread. Of course white people have brown eyes! It’s the most common eye colour!

My whole family has or had dark brown hair and dark brown eyes - largely a Celtic thing with pale skin.

I have dark brown eyes and blonde hair, my family is white British going back 7 generations that I know of.
Both my DC have bright blue eyes despite DH having grey eyes so I think the gene aspect is slightly more complicated than PPs have stated above.

YABU. As it happens I'm pale and half middle Eastern. My sister and I have blue and green eyes. My Anglo husband has dark brown eyes...really dark eyes.

Are you saying that people are assuming your DS1 is white until corrected? Or are you saying that they don't believe it when told he's mixed heritage but do believe your other DC? If the latter then that's bloody rude. However if it's the former then I don't think eye colour is necessarily a firm indicator of mixed heritage. In fact I don't think anything is firm indicator of mixed or mono heritage, genetics are a funny thing.

@Runaway3444

Sorry I didn’t realise how common it was but I definitely think people shouldn’t judge ethnicity solely by a persons skin tone.

So they should judge it by eye colour?

@Oblomov21

48% uk

8% worldwide.

That is a bit odd, don't you think?

Not really when you consider that in Asia, Africa and South America brown is overwhelmingly the most common eye colour. Blue eyes are most common in the U.K., but the U.K. only has a tiny fraction of the world’s population.

At work an Indian maintenance man was convinced I was Indian because of my eyes! I thought it was strange because surely green eyes would quite rare in India? I do look foreign though apparently there's Hungarian gypsy heritage on my dad's side?!

Romany people come from North India originally and the ‘look’ of both ethnically Punjabi (or ethnically Gujarati) people and Romany people are similar. Darker skin is often as a result of permanent sun damage in adulthood or non-Punjabi or non-Gujarati people in the blood line. For example many Gujaratis have black Kenyan heritage because most working men who went to work in East Africa often returned with Kenyan wives or mixed race children. In the Punjab many people have intermarried with people from Central India - but the families that stay strictly in caste often do have green or dark blue eyes and light brown hair. Many pass for white people even in India.

Do you mean like David Mitchell? Really dark brown?

It is interesting though how many people think brown in the most common eye colour when it’s more than twice as rare as blue. I wonder where that came from?

It might be because blue and green eyes are perceived as more beautiful - they often top polls when people are asked for their preference. Perhaps that leads people to assume they’re less common than brown, though the opposite is true?

I have blue eyes, husband brown eyes, and of my 3 children, two are brown eyed and one is blue eyed. We are of Celtic Anglo Saxon origin

YABU

I’m pasty English white with no ethnic heritage at all. Dark dark brown eyes and DD same despite her DF’s pale blue eyes. He also had no ethnic heritage and is quite pale skinned.

I am extremely pale and my eyes are very dark brown like the David Mitchell picture above.

Brown eyes are the most common colour not blue, I wonder if MNers don’t have google 🤷🏼‍♀️

Having fair hair and dark brown eyes is probably less common.

OP is being reasonable about 1970s white people in California, i can somewhat attest to that.

We were sorted into 'meet new people at the school' groups by... eye colour. I was the only white girl sitting with about 6 black (African-American) people (dark brown not black eye group). Black eye group was all black. I have certainly met many green & blue-eyed African Americans since, but they are unusual. Even then I thought eye colour was a pants way to sort us, precisely because we were getting sorted racially not getting truly mixed up. Letters of alphabet clusters (first name start) would have been better, for instance.

If you mean almost black brown eyes possibly yes. My husband is part Indian but has blue eyes, I have brown eyes. My son has brown almost black eyes, the brown eye colour must have come from me but I think perhaps his eyes are so dark due to the darker melanin gene from his father. He also has a slate grey nevi, which is likely from his fathers side

Genetically, blue eyes are dominant. So if a blue eyed woman conceived with a brown eyed man, the odds are they child would have blue eyes.

Obviously there are variations but genetically blue is the dominant gene.

DP has blue eyes- brown eyed father, blue eyed mother.

@HerMammy

Brown eyes are the most common colour not blue, I wonder if MNers don’t have google 🤷🏼‍♀️

Globally, she's asking about the UK.

I wonder if your Google works correctly🤦

@HerMammy

Brown eyes are the most common colour not blue, I wonder if MNers don’t have google 🤷🏼‍♀️

Well it was google that told me that in the U.K., brown eyes are the least common. Where did you get your info? Here’s what I read: www.optimax.co.uk/blog/common-myths-eye-colour/

@Mrsfrumble

Apparently a lot of Welsh people have Iberian DNA, so the dark hair and eyes combination is common there. DH has Welsh heritage and has very dark (nearly black) hair and dark brown eyes, as does DD.

This is true. Loads of Welsh people have a Mediterranean look to them darker skin tone and dark features.

OP why would you assume anyone would automatically know (or care) that your child has a ethnic father. Jesus. Talk about storm in a teacup.

My daughters have very dark, almost black irises. Their father is mixed south East Asian and white. They’re so dark that the nurse struggled to do the eye check on them when they were new norms.

@JinglingHellsBells

Genetically, blue eyes are dominant. So if a blue eyed woman conceived with a brown eyed man, the odds are they child would have blue eyes.

Obviously there are variations but genetically blue is the dominant gene.

DP has blue eyes- brown eyed father, blue eyed mother.

This was us, the opposite way. I have very dark brown eyes, my husband has blue eyes. Our baby has blue eyes. They’re currently an incredibly dark blue but he’s only 5 months, so I expect they will lighten still.

I find all this fascinating.

I have green eyes and blonde hair
DH has brown eyes and brown hair

DD1 has brown eyes and blonde hair
DD2 has blue/grey eyes and brown hair

We're all white British.

Neither of my child keen have my green eyes. Is that because it's recessive?