Donor Nexus Team
September 17, 2026
The short answer
An egg donor's eye color gives you a helpful clue about your baby's eye color, but it can't guarantee it. Eye color is shaped by variants in dozens of genes, and your baby inherits half of those variants from the egg donor and half from the sperm provider.2,3
A blue-eyed egg donor paired with a blue-eyed sperm provider most often has a blue-eyed child, and two brown-eyed genetic parents usually have a brown-eyed child. Surprises still happen in both directions, so eye color tends to work best as one preference among several when you choose a donor.
Eye color is one of the first traits many intended parents look at in an egg donor profile, often because they hope their child will share a family resemblance. For some families it becomes a deciding factor, especially when blue, green or brown eyes run strongly on one side of the family.
If you are weighing donors partly by eye color, this guide walks through how eye color is inherited, what a blue-eyed, green-eyed or brown-eyed egg donor can pass on, and how much weight the trait can reasonably carry in your decision.
How do you find an egg donor with a specific eye color?
If eye color is on your list, the Donor Nexus donor database lets you filter egg donor profiles by eye color, so you can pull up blue-eyed, green-eyed, hazel-eyed or brown-eyed donors right away. From there, each profile shows you much more about the donor, including her health history, background and personality, which helps you weigh eye color alongside everything else that matters to your family.
In the Donor Nexus database, egg donor profiles show the eye colors of the donor's parents, grandparents and siblings, so you can see whether blue, green or hazel eyes run in her family before you choose.
What are the best donor profiles for those seeking a specific hair or eye color?
The most helpful profiles show you more than the donor's own coloring, because the traits she carries in her genes can differ from the ones you see in her photos. When hair or eye color is a priority, look for these details:
- Family traits. The parent, grandparent and sibling eye colors on Donor Nexus profiles hint at lighter-eye variants a donor may carry without showing them.
- Childhood photos. Blond hair in early childhood often darkens by the teen years, so if a profile includes childhood photos, they show you what the donor looked like at the ages your child will be.1
- Natural hair color. Many adults color their hair, so compare the hair color listed on the profile with what you see in her photos.
- The sperm provider's side. Your baby's hair and eye color depend just as much on the other genetic parent, so his coloring and family traits count too.
Hair color follows the same many-gene pattern as eye color. Red hair shows how a trait can skip a generation: hair is almost always very red when both copies of the MC1R gene are switched off, so a dark-haired donor who carries one inactive copy can still have a red-haired child if the sperm provider passes on an inactive copy as well.1
Can you predict your baby's eye color from the egg donor?
You can make an educated guess, but not an exact prediction. Eye color used to be taught as a single gene where brown always wins over blue, and geneticists now know that model is too simple.2 A 2021 study of nearly 195,000 people found 61 regions of the genome linked to eye color, 50 of which had never been identified before, and the researchers noted that DNA predicts brown and blue eyes far more accurately than green, hazel and other in-between shades.3
With donor eggs, your baby's genes come from the egg donor and the sperm provider, so both of their eye colors matter equally. If you are the intended mother, your eye color is not passed on genetically, although your body plays a large part in your baby's development during pregnancy, as our guide to epigenetics and donor eggs explains.
How eye color is inherited
Your baby receives two copies of each gene, one from each genetic parent. The two genes with the largest effect on eye color, OCA2 and HERC2, sit next to each other on chromosome 15. OCA2 helps cells in the iris make melanin, while a nearby section of HERC2 acts like a switch that controls how active OCA2 is. A common variation in that switch lowers melanin production and leads to lighter eyes, and several other genes, including TYR, TYRP1, IRF4, SLC24A4 and SLC45A2, make smaller adjustments to the final shade.2
What you see as eye color comes down to how much melanin sits in the front layer of the iris. A lot of melanin produces brown eyes, a moderate amount produces green or hazel eyes, and little or none produces blue or gray eyes.4
Why two brown-eyed parents can have a blue-eyed child
You can't tell by looking at someone whether they carry lighter-eye gene variants. A brown-eyed egg donor and a brown-eyed sperm provider can each carry one, and if both pass it on, their child may end up with lighter eyes than either of them. The reverse can happen too, since two blue-eyed parents can occasionally have a brown-eyed child.2 Family history offers useful hints here, because a brown-eyed donor with a blue-eyed parent or sibling is more likely to carry a lighter-eye variant than a donor whose whole family has brown eyes.
What eye colors are possible from each parent pairing?
The table below shows general patterns for each combination of egg donor and sperm provider eye colors. It works the same way regardless of which parent has which eye color.
| Egg donor and sperm provider eye colors | Most likely for your baby | Less common, but possible |
|---|---|---|
| Blue and blue | Blue | Green, hazel or brown |
| Blue and green or hazel | Blue, green or hazel | Brown |
| Green or hazel and green or hazel | Green, hazel or blue | Brown |
| Brown and blue | Brown or blue, depending on whether the brown-eyed parent carries a lighter-eye variant | Green or hazel |
| Brown and green or hazel | Brown, green or hazel | Blue |
| Brown and brown | Brown | Blue, green or hazel, when both parents carry lighter-eye variants |
Eye color possibilities by parent pairing. These are general patterns based on how eye color genes are inherited, and because many genes are involved, they can't give exact odds for any one family.2,3
What does a blue-eyed, green-eyed or brown-eyed egg donor pass on?
Each egg donor passes on one copy of every gene to your baby, and her own eye color tells you something about which eye color variants she is likely to carry.
Choosing a blue-eyed egg donor
A blue-eyed egg donor has very little melanin in the front of her irises, which usually reflects lighter-eye variants in the HERC2 and OCA2 region.2,4 That makes her a fairly dependable source of those variants for your baby. If blue eyes are important to your family, pairing a blue-eyed egg donor with a blue-eyed sperm provider gives your baby the best chance of blue eyes. When the sperm provider has brown eyes, the outcome depends on whether he carries a lighter-eye variant himself, and his family's eye colors are the best clue you have.
Choosing a green-eyed or hazel-eyed egg donor
Green and hazel eyes have less melanin than brown eyes and more than blue eyes.4 They are also the hardest shades to predict from genetics, because they come from many small gene effects adding up.3 Green eyes are the least common of the major eye colors, at roughly 2% of the global population, so you may see fewer green-eyed egg donors when you browse profiles.4 A green-eyed or hazel-eyed donor often carries lighter-eye variants as well, so depending on the sperm provider, your baby could have blue, green, hazel or brown eyes.
Choosing a brown-eyed egg donor
Brown is the most common eye color in the world, and more than half of all people have brown eyes.4 A brown-eyed egg donor may carry two brown-eye variants or one brown and one lighter-eye variant, and a photo can't show you which. If lighter eyes run in your family and you are open to a brown-eyed donor, the eye colors of her parents and siblings can help you gauge whether lighter eyes are in the picture, and your Donor Nexus case manager can help you look into that as you compare donors.
Will your baby's eye color change after birth?
It might. The idea that every baby is born with blue eyes is a myth: in a Stanford study of 192 newborns, 63% were born with brown eyes and about 21% with blue eyes.5 Melanin in the iris builds up after birth, so a baby's eye color often shifts between 3 and 9 months, and some children's eye color keeps shifting until around age 3.6
How much should eye color matter when you choose an egg donor?
Eye color is a reasonable preference, and many families use it to narrow a long list of donor profiles. Because it can't be guaranteed, it usually works best as one factor alongside the donor's health history, genetic carrier screening results, education and personality, along with the sense of connection many intended parents feel when they read a donor's profile.
Narrowing your search to a single eye color also narrows your donor options, which can matter if you are hoping to match quickly or want a donor with a particular background. Some intended parents treat eye color as a flexible preference and others make it a firm requirement, and both are sensible ways to approach the search. Blood type is another trait that comes up often, and our guide on whether an egg donor's blood type matters covers it in detail. For a first-hand perspective, one mother shares what she learned choosing an egg donor three times.
Donor Nexus offers both frozen donor eggs and Fresh Donor Matching. When you register to browse donor profiles, you can review each donor's physical traits, including eye color, and our team can help you find donors who fit the preferences that matter most to your family.
Frequently asked questions about egg donor eye color
Can I choose an egg donor based on eye color?
Yes. The Donor Nexus donor database lets you filter egg donor profiles by eye color. Your baby's eye color also depends on the sperm provider's genes, which means choosing a donor with a certain eye color improves the chances of that color without guaranteeing it.
Can two blue-eyed parents have a brown-eyed baby?
Yes, although it is uncommon. Eye color is influenced by many genes, and genetic variations occasionally produce a darker eye color than either parent has.2
Does the mother carrying the pregnancy affect the baby's eye color?
Not genetically. With donor eggs, the genes that shape eye color come from the egg donor and the sperm provider. The mother carrying the pregnancy influences her baby's development in other ways through the environment of the uterus.
What is the rarest eye color?
Green is the least common of the major eye colors, at roughly 2% of the global population. Brown is the most common, and over half of people worldwide have brown eyes.4
When do babies' eyes stop changing color?
Most changes in a baby's eye color happen between 3 and 9 months of age, though some children's eye color keeps shifting until around age 3.6
Sources
- MedlinePlus Genetics, National Library of Medicine. Is hair color determined by genetics?
- MedlinePlus Genetics, National Library of Medicine. Is eye color determined by genetics?
- Simcoe M, et al. Genome-wide association study in almost 195,000 individuals identifies 50 previously unidentified genetic loci for eye color. Science Advances. 2021;7(11):eabd1239.
- Cleveland Clinic. Eye colors: hazel, green, amber, blue, grey and brown.
- Ludwig CA, Callaway NF, Fredrick DR, Blumenkranz MS, Moshfeghi DM. What colour are newborns' eyes? Prevalence of iris colour in the Newborn Eye Screening Test (NEST) study. Acta Ophthalmologica. 2016;94(5):485-488.
- Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials. When do babies' eyes change color?
Related reading
Medical disclaimer
This article shares general information about eye color genetics and choosing an egg donor, and it is not medical or genetic advice. The eye color patterns described here are general and cannot predict any individual child's eye color. If you have questions about inherited traits, your fertility doctor or a genetic counselor can review your family's history with you.
Last updated September 2026. Figures cited here are drawn from the sources listed above.
Donor Nexus Team
The Donor Nexus Team is the group of case managers, donor coordinators, and egg bank staff who run the agency's Fresh Donor Matching, Frozen Egg Bank, and Embryo Donation programs day to day. Since 2012 they ha…
Ready for the next step?
If you are ready to get started or just need more info, contact us today.