# How common are two-tone eyes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 18, 2002, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-are-two-tone-eyes/143650 "2002-12-18T21:07:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-are-two-tone-eyes/143650/1 "2002-12-18T21:07:34Z")
My youngest son just turned fourteen months. Unlike his siblings, his eveyes never completely changed from baby-blue to brown. He has a light brown “ring” around his pupil and the rest of his iris is blue or at most, bluish-gray. Since it’s been like this for a pretty long while, I’m inclined he’ll always have eyes that contain two distinct colors. Does anyone have any idea just how common/uncommon such a thing is? Just curious. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-are-two-tone-eyes/143650/2 "2002-12-18T21:21:03Z")
Judging by my family, I would say it happens in 1 out of 4 children. I am that one. There are two browns and one blue and then me, a sort of green and brown. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-are-two-tone-eyes/143650/3 "2002-12-18T21:27:10Z")
That’s very funny - the kid I’m referring to is our fourth child also. Wow, coincidence is cool. Chaim Mattis Keller ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-are-two-tone-eyes/143650/4 "2002-12-18T22:57:50Z")
I have eyes similar to that. I have a ring of bright rust orange around my pupil, and the rest of the eye is a grey-blue-greeny colour (depends on what colours are around my eye, it’ll change the cast of them). The thing I hate is that I’ve had a _hell_ of a time trying to figure out what colour I should say they are! They’re technically grey, I guess, but there’s rust, and I just don’t know. Just don’t call 'em hazel. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-are-two-tone-eyes/143650/5 "2002-12-18T22:59:56Z")
My eyes are black in the center and brown around it. 😃 :: d&r :: Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-are-two-tone-eyes/143650/6 "2002-12-18T23:08:54Z")
Eye color is controlled by three different pairs of dominant recessive genes. One pair determines whether you’ll have brown eyes or some lighter color. In this pair, brown is dominant. If a child gets two brown genes or a brown and a blue/green, her eyes will be brown. If the child gets two blue/green genes, the second gene comes into play. The second gene pair determines whether people with two blue/green recessive genes in the first pair gets green or blue eyes. In this pair, green is dominant, so if the child has two recessvie blue/greens and either two greens or a blue and a green, the child will have green eyes. If the child has two blue/greens in the first pair, and two blues in the second pair, it will have blue eyes. The purpose of the third pair is unknown. I’ve read speculation that it is this pair that is responsible for the variants of blue eyes (such as grey or violet, pale or deep blue, etc.) or hazel eyes (which are probably a variant of either green or brown, may be a non-dominant trait mixing the two, or may be a unique color all it’s own. In the two examples listed, one out of four children had the two-toned eyes. When two people with one dominant and one recessive gene have children, the children have a one in four chance of getting the recessive trait. My speculation is that the two-toned eyes may be a recessive trait passed on by the parents, and if so, it would be controlled by either the third eye color gene pair or some as of yet undiscovered eye color gene pair. I’ve read speculation that there may be a fourth eye color gene pair. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2002, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-are-two-tone-eyes/143650/7 "2002-12-19T02:52:10Z")
Antidotally, in my family the odds of it seem to be 100% My brother has gray rings around his pupils, and I have goldish-brown rings around mine. We both have blue eyes. ---
**Author:** ![cainxinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@cainxinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cainxinth)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2002, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-are-two-tone-eyes/143650/8 "2002-12-19T06:20:40Z")
My fam has everything under the sun. My father is plain brown, my mother has one green eye and one that is brown on the top, blue on the bottom. My older sister has brown with a blue outer ring, my younger sister has blue with grey interspersed, and I have brown with green interspersed. Plot that on a test cross 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2002, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-are-two-tone-eyes/143650/9 "2002-12-19T06:29:40Z")
[Would You Believe It, The Master Knows All](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a971205.html) ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2002, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-are-two-tone-eyes/143650/10 "2002-12-19T15:12:38Z")
Yeah, but Cecil is talking about people who either: 1 - have one eye one colour and the other eye is a completely different colour (like one brown eye and one blue eye). 2 - eyes that _used_ to be one colour and suddenly changed colours (you used to have brown eyes, but all of a sudden they’re blue). Neither of these cases fit (at least what _I_ was talking about). My eyes are rust and blue _at the same time_. They haven’t changed or done anything differently. Both eyes are the same two colours at the same time. Sorry if it sounds like I’m irritated, but the last time I posted about my two-tone eyes (asking for a definition of “hazel” eyes), people posted this link there, too, and it just really doesn’t answer the qustion asked. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![zia\_nova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/bc79bd/32.png) [@zia\_nova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zia_nova)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-are-two-tone-eyes/143650/11 "2002-12-21T02:11:42Z")
I have a light brown colour around my pupil and the rest is green. Usually my eyes look dark brown though (go figure) unless it’s quite bright in which case the pupil shrinks and more green is vissible. It’s strange becuase all of us kids (there’s 5 of us in all) have always been renowned for our really dark brown eyes. …when the light shines mine are green. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-are-two-tone-eyes/143650/12 "2002-12-21T09:14:26Z")
Isn’t the iris of an eye actually made up of lots of fibres? I think a two-tone eye would be some fibres one colour, some fibres another, and just by the way they are woven together depends on which fibres are visible at which part of the iris. Maybe. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-are-two-tone-eyes/143650/13 "2002-12-21T13:56:56Z")
I’ve been told that my eyes change color. I always thought that they were green, but I’ve been told that they change from green to grey to gold. Seems to have irritated most of my girlfriends for some reason. (I remember one of them saying, “What the hell color are your eyes anyway?”) Nearly everyone in my family has brown eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-are-two-tone-eyes/143650/14 "2002-12-21T14:15:08Z")
I have two-tone irises… well, three-tone, actually. A slim ring of charcoal gray around the outside of the iris, blue in the middle, and an extremely skinny ring of tan or gold around the pupil. A friend of mine has **Tuckerfan** ’s eyes, except that when she was a little kid, her eyes had started brown. They changed to greenish over the years, and now seem to change color. I haven’t documented it closely, so I don’t know if her irises are just very “reflective” of colors that she’s wearing, or what. ---
**Author:** ![monica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@monica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monica)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-are-two-tone-eyes/143650/15 "2002-12-21T17:44:14Z")
My friend’s boyfriend has really interesting eyes. His left eye is a kind of green-hazel, and his right eye is the same way, except for the right bottom corner of the iris- which is brown. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-are-two-tone-eyes/143650/16 "2002-12-21T18:09:12Z")
Well, in my immediate family the incidence is 50%, as my father and I both have two-tone eyes. There’s a ring of really dark blue-gray at the rim, with lighter blue gray inside that, changing to a hazely sort of brown next to the pupil. I never saw (or maybe just never noticed) any color but the blue-gray until I was 13 or so, which I’ve always though was rather odd. ---
**Author:** ![Elizabeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/34f0e0/32.png) [@Elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elizabeth)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-are-two-tone-eyes/143650/17 "2002-12-22T19:22:41Z")
Hello CMKELLER, Just another mystery of life perhaps, My dad had one green eye, one blue mix, dont know what you would call that one. I have one eye color darker brown than the other, when Im talking to someone I call always tell when they notice, they just keep looking back and forth, its to funny. But I have seen many people with this darker color ring aroung there eyes, I think it inhances the eye, looks nice. Just a thought. Peace ---
**Author:** ![Star\_shaped\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/87869e/32.png) [@Star\_shaped\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Star_shaped_soul)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2017, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-are-two-tone-eyes/143650/18 "2017-06-21T03:27:26Z")
[https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/456763587198151825/visual-search/?x=16&y=4&w=530&h=134](https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/456763587198151825/visual-search/?x=16&y=4&w=530&h=134) Kristen Wiig has eyes like these. They’re lovely but I think she covers them with blue contacts. What color would you classify her eyes?😕 ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2017, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-are-two-tone-eyes/143650/19 "2017-06-21T14:57:07Z")
I have one brown and one green. I find that kids notice it more quickly than adults. My mom said she thought something could be wrong when I was a baby, but the doctor said not to worry about it. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2017, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-are-two-tone-eyes/143650/20 "2017-06-21T15:32:33Z")
We were chatting about this subject just recently. That eye color that’s bluish-greenish-grayish, with gold coloration just around the pupil, is called “[glasz](http://24.media.tumblr.com/d898fb7450f0de0bd6cda08664f9da04/tumblr_mjtk7bsmKh1rb66ioo2_500.gif)”. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-are-two-tone-eyes/143650.md?page=2)