Grey eyes in the UK

[Zena]

This might be a silly question, but are grey eyes very common in the UK?

I've been reading some Agatha Christie and Elizabeth Ferrars, a contemporary of Christie and published as E. X. Ferrars in the US. Both always have at least one person, but usually more than one, with grey eyes in each book.

Grey eyes (gray here in the US) are, as far as I've noticed, rather uncommon. I can only recall one person that I ever noticed with gray eyes, and it was always a tossup as to whether her eyes were gray or just a very light pale blue.

I just started a Ferrars book and yet again the protagonist has grey eyes. Just wondering if grey/gray eyes are as common in the UK as they are in Christie's and Ferrars's books. LOL

[GUT]

This might be a silly question, but are grey eyes very common in the UK?

I've been reading some Agatha Christie and Elizabeth Ferrars, a contemporary of Christie and published as E. X. Ferrars in the US. Both always have at least one person, but usually more than one, with grey eyes in each book.

Grey eyes (gray here in the US) are, as far as I've noticed, rather uncommon. I can only recall one person that I ever noticed with gray eyes, and it was always a tossup as to whether her eyes were gray or just a very light pale blue.

I just started a Ferrars book and yet again the protagonist has grey eyes. Just wondering if grey/gray eyes are as common in the UK as they are in Christie's and Ferrars's books. LOL

I can't talk for the UK but I think you are right in that most of what some people call grey eyes are actually a very light blue. I have blue eyes that vary in intensity and at their palest many call grey.

[Zena]

You're probably right. Thanks, Gut!

[Errata]

Grey comes from a small chemical difference. It's not really about the color as much as the intensity of the color, so less intense blue is a steel grey, less intense green is a pewter grey. Medications, age, some diseases can all cause eyes to become grey. Mine did, when I was about 30. I used to have blue green eyes, now they are grey with a blue corona.

[Fleetwood Mac]

This might be a silly question, but are grey eyes very common in the UK?

I've been reading some Agatha Christie and Elizabeth Ferrars, a contemporary of Christie and published as E. X. Ferrars in the US. Both always have at least one person, but usually more than one, with grey eyes in each book.

Grey eyes (gray here in the US) are, as far as I've noticed, rather uncommon. I can only recall one person that I ever noticed with gray eyes, and it was always a tossup as to whether her eyes were gray or just a very light pale blue.

I just started a Ferrars book and yet again the protagonist has grey eyes. Just wondering if grey/gray eyes are as common in the UK as they are in Christie's and Ferrars's books. LOL

All of my family have blue eyes but there is the odd hint of grey to varying degrees. Having done my family tree, my ancestors are a mix of Scottish, Cornish, Yorkshire, Durham and Staffordshire. But for some reason no one knows of anyone of any generation who had brown eyes in our family.

My Mother's eyes are a blue/grey, whereas mine are more royal blue.

I doubt there is anyone anywhere with predominantly grey eyes, but it wouldn't be that uncommon for there to be a hint of grey.

[Joshua Rogan]

I know someone who has pure grey eyes, although she swears they're blue. To be fair, they can look blue under certain lighting conditions. So maybe that's why grey is more common in the uk - we don't get as much sunshine.

[Rosella]

I've noticed the grey-eyed thing popping up in Agatha Christie books too. Maybe the British population has changed a lot since Christie was writing but in all my years living in the UK I can barely remember more than three or four people I ever met who had purely grey eyes.

This was so even up in Scotland, which traditionally, because of the Celtic heritage, has a lot more redheads and strawberry blondes. Blue-grey eyes that looked grey in certain lights, pure grey, no!

I've often wondered whether Christie was herself attracted to the combination of dark hair and grey eyes that she often wrote about. Was Archie Christie dark haired and grey eyed?

[Fleetwood Mac]

I've noticed the grey-eyed thing popping up in Agatha Christie books too. Maybe the British population has changed a lot since Christie was writing but in all my years living in the UK I can barely remember more than three or four people I ever met who had purely grey eyes.

This was so even up in Scotland, which traditionally, because of the Celtic heritage, has a lot more redheads and strawberry blondes. Blue-grey eyes that looked grey in certain lights, pure grey, no!

I've often wondered whether Christie was herself attracted to the combination of dark hair and grey eyes that she often wrote about. Was Archie Christie dark haired and grey eyed?

Hmmm, off topic but the vast, vast majority of Scots are dark. I don't think I've ever met a Scot with ginger hair and definitely not one with blonde hair.

No scientific study to verify this obviously, but I've seen far more ginger hair in Northern England.

The idea that the English are of Anglo-Saxon/Viking stock and the rest of Britain from Celtic stock, is no longer a dominant theory. These days the belief, underpinned by genetic studies, is that the people of Britain, including England, and Ireland share pretty much the same DNA and our ancestors are from Iberia as opposed to Northern Europe.

Put simply, the Anglo-Saxons did not displace the Ancient/Romano Britons and the majority of English men and women are not the product of the Anglo-Saxons, who also settled in Scotland by the way; just as the Vikings settled in Ireland.

[Rosella]

You should see my cousin's family, then! She was blonde, married a Scot, one of three brothers, all with sandy hair and blue eyes, from Aberdeen. She still lives in Scotland, near Inverness, and has four children, two of them ginger, two sandy, all adults now. None have grey eyes, however. My first boyfriend was a Scot. His mother, had beautiful blonde hair and blue eyes.

[Rosella]

Found this. Apparently Scots and Irish have the highest percentage of redheads in the world. I don't know about grey eyes, though.

http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/gallery/2014/aug/27/gingers-scotlands-redheads-in-pictures

[Joshua Rogan]

Julius Caesar, after his foray into Britain, noted that the people of Cornwall were very similar to the Iberians. I'm not sure he had access to DNA evidence, though.

[Sam Flynn]

So maybe that's why grey is more common in the uk - we don't get as much sunshine.

It's so gloomy that I sometimes wonder why we even need eyes

[Errata]

I've noticed the grey-eyed thing popping up in Agatha Christie books too. Maybe the British population has changed a lot since Christie was writing but in all my years living in the UK I can barely remember more than three or four people I ever met who had purely grey eyes.

This was so even up in Scotland, which traditionally, because of the Celtic heritage, has a lot more redheads and strawberry blondes. Blue-grey eyes that looked grey in certain lights, pure grey, no!

I've often wondered whether Christie was herself attracted to the combination of dark hair and grey eyes that she often wrote about. Was Archie Christie dark haired and grey eyed?

It may have been purely symbolic. There are certain characteristics associated with different eye colors and hair colors. People with brown eyes are warm and caring, those with blue eyes more mystical, blondes are dumb, redheads have nasty tempers...

Athena was specifically said to have grey eyes, so they are associated with wisdom and knowledge. Dark hair was also the screen idol preference of the day for men, so she may have chosen it just to convey general good looks. Grey eyes and dark hair suggests smart handsome people. It also for a wordsmith. People melt into brown eyes, are electrified by green eyes, and startled by blue or violet eyes, sort of literary standards. Grey eyes almost always pierce. Which makes more sense for a mystery novel. There's nothing wrong with running with a standard.

[Sam Flynn]

It may have been purely symbolic. There are certain characteristics associated with different eye colors and hair colors. People with brown eyes are warm and caring, those with blue eyes more mystical, blondes are dumb, redheads have nasty tempers...

..."or so some people believe", I hope

[Joshua Rogan]

I was going to suggest that the grey eyes were to convey some character trait, but not being familiar with the books, didn't know if the characters in question were the heroes or turned out to be the killer. Could be a clue.
"Pitiless" and "steely" are two other words that spring to mind as associated with grey eyes.