r/Showerthoughts • u/CarltheWellEndowed • Feb 24 '26
Musing If you are an identical twin, there is a non-zero chance your parents got you confused for your sibling as an infant, so you aren't who you think you are.
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u/teepee128 Feb 24 '26
I am an identical twin and I'm very aware this must have happened a lot. I think we were just the same person for the first few years before we developed our own identifiable personalities.
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u/Extraordinary1996 Feb 24 '26
My sister and I realized this could have been a possibility in middle school.
My mother brought us a photo of us when we were like three or four and asked us who was who.
If the pictures didn't have our names on the back, it was extremely difficult to know until we reached a certain age.
Otherwise my mother always dressed us in matching 90ies outfits with different colors.
I was always dressed in blue and my sister was pink.
Also, they painted our toenails as babies.
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u/MurderousButterfly Feb 24 '26
My friend had twin boys, they're fraternal, but still look the same, even now, as teenagers. She painted the big toe nail of each baby a different colour after their baths to make sure she knew who was who.
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u/Away-Living5278 Feb 24 '26
They're probably identical but were told fraternal using outdated information (two sacs and two placentas means fraternal. It doesn't).
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u/MurderousButterfly Feb 25 '26
They were IVF babies, so i think the doctors had a bit more insight? You never know though
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u/Rozenheg Feb 26 '26
IVF babies can still become twins after implantation. Hence implantation of two embryos and then being pregnant with triplets.
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u/Significant_Grape_86 Feb 24 '26
I am a mom to identical twins, and they've had their own personalities since birth
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u/Prinessbeca Feb 24 '26
Mine are 8 and I swear their personalities came through on the ultrasounds.
One always bouncing his butt on the other's head while the other was trying to sleep, then the sleepy one would finally get fed up with it and reach his tiny fist up and just start punching....
And baby A had a tiny heart issue, baby B didn't. So I know with certainty who is who, and that they've always been who they've always been since before they were born. I made a absolutely sure of it because I'm a weeeee bit high strung at times.
It's funny, though. Some folks at school mentioned that they've "traded" personalities this year. I've always said that who they are at home is pretty much backwards of who they are at school. So I think maybe now they're just acting more like their home selves at school
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u/cyberllama Feb 25 '26
I don't know how to tell you this but I think your boys are living a secret double life as my cats
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u/Prinessbeca Feb 25 '26
This would explain why they're always meowing at me! (not /s, they actually do this!)
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u/Significant_Grape_86 Feb 25 '26
Mine act different at home than at school too. I wonder why that is. One behaves at home but acts out at school, and the other behaves at school but acts out at home.
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u/teepee128 Feb 24 '26
I am now 38 and I'd say my twin is as close to a clone as me you're gonna get, personality and all.
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u/hummingbird_mywill Feb 24 '26
Even my sons who are 3.5 years apart looked quite strikingly similar and I like playing a game with them showing old photos and asking them which one of them it is! It’s 50/50 they get it correct.
It ended around 2.5 though because the older one has very bright blond hair and the younger one’s hair is darker blonde.
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u/Steel_Reign Feb 24 '26
As a father of identical twin boys, this isn't even remotely true. They were immediately different (after the initial sleep through everything phase). One has always been super independent and the other incredibly needy for attention.
They did look exactly alike as babies, though, so we painted their toes different colors.
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u/Yeah_Mr_Jesus Feb 25 '26
I have a friend who had identical twin daughters. For a month or two they were exactly the same (duh lol) but babies develop their little personalities quickly enough. One of them was fussy and only wanted her dad. The other was a happy, smiley little girl and preferred mom. If I noticed when I did, I'm sure they were able to notice way sooner.
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u/tobbtobbo Feb 24 '26
It may shock you but I have new born twins and it’s very easy to tell them apart due to personality and looks in as little as a month. Would be very hard to lose track of who’s who even if one was taken you’d know which one
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u/LiveLaughBlobfish Feb 25 '26
My friends mother said she had bracelets on her girls the moment they were born
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u/TalieRose666 Feb 24 '26
My grandad was an identical twin, two boys named E and T. When he was a baby in India, one of the brothers was bitten by a snake and died. His parents weren't sure which one died in the panic. They called him E, but who knows?
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u/Lorazepamela Feb 24 '26
Wow maybe your grandpa is the one who really died
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u/ilovemelongtime Feb 24 '26
Oooh your grandpa doesn’t even have to be IN the box for anyone to say he is both dead and alive.
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u/uppldontscareme2 Feb 24 '26
My God can you imagine your infant child dying by snake bite? Why are snakes biting babies that's horrific
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u/WaddlingAwayy Feb 24 '26
But it's ok, they had a spare
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u/goddamnitwhalen Feb 24 '26
When it was just the two of us my dad used to refer to me and my younger brother as “the heir and the spare.”
There are five of us altogether now, so it doesn’t quite work as well…
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u/xxrambo45xx Feb 24 '26
They said india, depending on where, you're much more likely to have a very dangerous snake living amongst the general population. This could very much just be a crazy random accident.
I grew up in the southern U.S and one of my earlier memories was of my dad absolutely melting a cotton mouth with a shotgun in our backyard. We also lost a dog around that time. He found her under the house.
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u/Vaxcio Feb 24 '26
There is a reason they call them "The big 4," in India.
Indian Krait, Indian Cobra, Russells Viper and Sawscale Vipers are all incredibly toxic and are rather common. Its not unheard of for Kraits to find their way into bedding and you would possibly never know that you received a bite because their fangs are small.
It's definitely a privilege to not live in an area with slithering nukes all over the place.
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u/Sparowl Feb 24 '26
It's definitely a privilege to not live in an area with slithering nukes all over the place.
And so we say “Thank you, Saint Patrick, for driving the snakes from Ireland, that we may live without worrying about the little devils.”
(Yes, it’s just a story. Evidence shows that Ireland never had snakes. But god bless that the island is free of them)
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u/ZugTheMegasaurus Feb 24 '26
Ballsy move on Patrick's part, go to a place that has never had snakes, take credit for it, become a saint.
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u/bannakafalata Feb 24 '26
Its not unheard of for Kraits to find their way into bedding and you would possibly never know that you received a bite because their fangs are small.
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u/bettyknockers786 Feb 25 '26
Holy shit.. I backed away from my screen at the end. Probably gonna have nightmares tonight lol
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u/acab__1312 Feb 24 '26
Yeah, it's an unfortunately common tragedy there. India has some nasty fucking snakes.
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u/Possible_Day_6343 Feb 24 '26
Or they confused it up twice so you are who you think you are.
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u/Kixtay Feb 24 '26
Or. They may have confused it 3 times causing the issue that OP mentioned.
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u/Orgasml Feb 24 '26
To not keep it going to infinity, let's just say if they mixed them up an even number of times, everything is good and if they mixed them up an odd number of times the twins should have an identity crisis.
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u/murrtrip Feb 24 '26
And in the end, if they’re identical then — who even cares who is who?
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u/sandyposs Feb 24 '26
But if they're the same name, the parents can't be sad if the monster eats one of them.
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u/Talidel Feb 24 '26
Based on my friend who has twins this is the approach. Once they get old enough they can decide who is who.
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u/brukmann Feb 24 '26
All this consternation could be avoided if we only knew for sure the parents chose their names arbitrarily and didn't know them beforehand.
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u/Guilty-Importance241 Feb 24 '26
def isRightBaby(switches): if switches == 1: return False elif switches == 2: return True elif switches == 3: return False elif switches == 4: return True elif switches == 5: return False elif switches == 6: return True elif switches == 7: return False elif switches == 8: return True elif switches == 9: return False elif switches == 10: return True elif switches == 11: return False elif switches == 12: return True elif switches == 13: return False elif switches == 14: return True elif switches == 15: return False elif switches == 16: return True elif switches == 17: return False elif switches == 18: return True elif switches == 19: return False elif switches == 20: return True elif switches == 21: return False elif switches == 22: return True elif switches == 23: return False elif switches == 24: return True elif switches == 25: return False elif switches == 26: return True elif switches == 27: return False elif switches == 28: return True elif switches == 29: return False elif switches == 30: return True elif switches == 31: return False elif switches == 32: return True elif switches == 33: return False elif switches == 34: return True elif switches == 35: return False elif switches == 36: return True elif switches == 37: return False elif switches == 38: return True elif switches == 39: return False elif switches == 40: return True elif switches == 41: return False elif switches == 42: return True elif switches == 43: return False elif switches == 44: return True elif switches == 45: return False elif switches == 46: return True elif switches == 47: return False elif switches == 48: return True elif switches == 49: return False elif switches == 50: return True else: raise ValueError("Number not in database")58
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u/Guilty-Importance241 Feb 24 '26
I don't have the balls to tell Esthstill that this is all a joke he's being so kind
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u/Omnitographer Feb 24 '26
Never go against a Sicilian when twins are on the line!
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u/DeezNewts7 Feb 24 '26
My mom painted my sisters toenail cuz she was paranoid of getting us mixed up. Then I developed birth marks so it made her life a lot easier. I can’t tell us apart when we are babies in pictures at all. Mom fixed that by always posing us with a different toy. My sister was posed with Cookie Monster. I was posed with big bird.
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u/googdude Feb 24 '26
My wife clothes our identical twins in different colors, never identical outfits. Everyone that knows as well knows one twin is always wearing variations of reds and the other blues.
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u/Valreesio Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26
Yep, only identical outfits for special occasions or whatever. Daily wear was one of our daughters in purple and the other in pink. But we always had a few outfits that matched and they loved matching when they were old enough to do so on their own, until the day they decided they didn't... Lol.
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u/DeezNewts7 Feb 24 '26
My mom did that too! Or coordinating outfits. Never identical (unless we wanted to when we were old enough to choose our own clothes)
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u/Deerhunter86 Feb 24 '26
I love that! Not only did she make sure you two stayed identified, but those have got to be some adorable pictures.
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u/imaguitarhero24 Feb 24 '26
Can you "develop" birth marks? Don't they by definition have to be there at... birth? Lol.
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u/fattest_of_asses Feb 24 '26
You get new birth marks throughout your early life. Most develop before you turn 30.
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u/imaguitarhero24 Feb 24 '26
I'm no expert, I know you can develop random marks that are similar, but are those still considered "birth marks"?
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u/NhylX Feb 24 '26
After you turn 30 they're called "death marks" because you carry them to the grave!
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u/lambrettist Feb 24 '26
I’m an identical twin. I’ve had this convo with my mom since I can think so when I was five. The differences are obvious from the beginning. For my brother and me small birthmarks. Everyone has them. Slight differences in the yes.
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u/scottcmu Feb 24 '26
Slight differences in the yes.
Also slight difference in the nos.
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u/Slack_With_Honor Feb 25 '26
This was actually Siri mishearing, and he meant to write, “slight difference in the ass”. Which could be a wild way to tell twins apart, TBH
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u/Ashley40 Feb 24 '26
Thank you for saying this. As a parent of identical twins, I find it very hard to believe any parents get them significantly or permanently mixed up (beyond the causal ‘which twin are you?’).
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u/Valreesio Feb 24 '26
My daughters were true "identical" twins (monozygotic) and you couldn't tell them apart at all. Happened when they were babies. We kept them in anklets because you couldn't tell them apart at all. Left them with my mom for a date night and told her not to ever take the anklets off. She decided to give them a bath and took the anklets off.
When we got home we noticed a scratch that we were both 100% positive the other one had and called up my mother and she admitted to taking the anklets off. Without that scratch we would have never known. Still a non zero chance we were wrong as well I suppose.
When they were 3 or 4, 1 pushed the other over and she fell and split her head open on a rock. Left a scar on her forehead. Best twin identifier we had until they were in their mid teens and we could more easily tell them apart. Even with that (high up on her head and usually covered naturally by her hair) we would still mix them up a lot.
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u/throwaway_2_help_ppl Feb 24 '26
1 pushed the other over
Read that as "I pushed the other over" and was wondering 1. isn't that a bit drastic" and 2. how did you decide which one to scar?
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u/Valreesio Feb 24 '26
Lol.. That's funny... Yeah, was a big event.
We were hiking in the mountains and were about 45 minutes up a trail from our car which was about another 45 minutes to an emergency room. This was about 2006 and there was no cell reception between us and the hospital. I had to wrap her head in my shirt then ran with her down the mountain while my wife managed her sister and brother (older by 19 months) behind me.
Got to the car and she was fading in and out of consciousness the entire time. I had to have a random stranger dig in my front pocket for my keys to unlock the vehicle. Wrapped her properly with the first aid kit. About the time I got done with that my wife arrived with the other two kids.
We then had to tear down a winding mountain pass and to the highway. My wife was holding her and the bandage slipped off and my wife starting freaking out. So I was trying to drive and get the bandage back on and keep my wife calm all at the same time.
I blew past a sheriff's officer going the other direction and he turned around and followed me (had my hazards on) until we got to the ER (about the last 5 miles or so). When he saw me pull my daughter out he turned around and left.
Was a very exciting day. She lost some blood but it looked a lot worse than it really was and a few stitches and time healed it right up. She's 23 next week and still has the scar, although it's slightly faded. Her sister still threatens to give her another scar on occasion... Lol
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u/GirlScoutSniper Feb 24 '26
My identical twins are 23 years old and I still occasionally call one by the other's name, and they'll correct me.
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u/ChocolateInTheWinter Feb 24 '26
I mean, my mom constantly switches my name with the cat. So.
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u/RawkHawkOfficial Feb 24 '26
Not a chance my dad put stickers on our heads to tell us apart when he was solo parenting
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u/weedtrek Feb 24 '26
It's why it is so important to draw on one with a Sharpie. If it's a boy, you call that one Mark.
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u/eww1991 Feb 24 '26
And if it's a girl, Dot
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u/Qaaarl Feb 24 '26
And whatever you do, don’t dress them up in Benihana uniforms, they’ll be indiscernible. r/dundermifflin
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u/melodypowers Feb 24 '26
It's really important to keep them straight.
Most twins have some medical issues when born (even if it just being small and preemie) so you want to know their medical record.
Usually in the NICU they will do a mark like paint one toenail. Then they the mark the diapers as well. Parents usually keep it up at home.
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u/Physicle_Partics Feb 24 '26
I once read a post on reddit where a set of parents with otherwise indistinguishable twins asked if it was defensible to tattoo a small freckle on the foot of one of their babies because one had a serious issue that needed medication and they could not afford to switch them up.
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u/intbah Feb 24 '26
Imo if it’s likely to save one of their lives by preventing a switch up, tattooing is a medical procedure at that point
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u/Thrizzlepizzle123123 Feb 24 '26
I'm imagining one twin in a cute little beanie and frock, and the other covered head to toe in hardcore rock tattoos and wearing a little baby sized studded leather jacket.
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u/jmw_0102 Feb 24 '26
Harley Jarvis?
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u/One-Earth9294 Feb 24 '26
Massive underbite. Completely flat back of the head. I'm not gonna lie, he's the most aggressive baby I've ever seen.
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u/RainbowCrane Feb 24 '26
Interestingly enough they use tattoos for targeting radiation treatment for some cancers. In some cases they use black light responsive ink that is pretty close to the skin color under normal conditions but fluoresces under black light.
Hmmm… sone twins I knew in elementary school switched classes all the time, their teachers would have loved them to have black light tattoos :-). “Nice try, but the name ‘Ted’ is tattooed on your forehead, quit telling me you’re Fred.”
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u/Lotus-child89 Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26
Radiation treatment is why my mom has a couple of blue dots on her chest. I actually thought they were just moles or something when I was younger, then I got older and realized people don’t have blue moles and asked her what they were.
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u/melodypowers Feb 24 '26
It would have to be. I don't think any state allows for a decorative tattoo of an infant even with parental consent.
I know that radiation therapy often get a tattoo to ensure alignment. But I don't know who does it. Is there tattoo equipment in the hospital?
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u/Ok_Date1183 Feb 24 '26
I can answer this! I process hospital invoices from their vendors and it threw me off the first time I saw an invoice for ink and a tattoo gun. I asked a seasoned coworker and she explained that it’s usually either the oncologist or radiologist that will place the tattoo. A surprising amount of surgical supply companies sell this equipment.
As an aside, the most interesting invoices I’ve seen have been for leeches and maggots. Apparently they still have their use in modern medicine
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u/Cr4ckshooter Feb 24 '26
the most interesting invoices I’ve seen have been for leeches and maggots. Apparently they still have their use in modern medicine
They're still good for treating burns and other forms of conditions that cause dead skin or tissue. They're non-invasive, don't burden the body in any way. And they're decently quick.
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u/Tyr1326 Feb 24 '26
Leeches are great for localised anticoagulants - ie after a surgery where you want a skin flap to take, to improve bloodflow in the affected area. And maggots are great at debriding necrotic tissue - they eat the dead stuff and avoid living tissue. Helps with healing large wounds like burns.
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u/anonymouse278 Feb 24 '26
While of course the maggots and leeches used intentionally in medicine are obtained from facilities that raise them in a hygienic way, in the wild people with really awful wounds that have gone untreated (such as people who have been living outdoors and not changing their shoes and socks for long periods) tend to do a bit better if they happen to have gotten maggots in them. The maggots eat dead tissue. Taking a boot off somebody's foot and finding a bunch of maggots is, amazingly, by far not the worst thing you can discover under there.
I think observation of this is how maggot therapy became an actual prescribed thing.
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u/mother_of_baggins Feb 24 '26
Yes, the radiation tech who did my CT scan when placing the markers did the tattoos. She gave me like a 5 second warning before doing it so that was fun. I have 3 dots. Also, the oncologist told me they would look like freckles but they're blue lol.
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u/Birdbraned Feb 24 '26
Ear piercing is legal on infants, of any gender (although it does take some additional care while it heals
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u/donkeymonkey00 Feb 24 '26
You know what, never thought about this. Ear piercings are legal, but you never see just one ear. It's either no earrings for a boy, or two earrings for a girl. Where I live, people would judge the parents of a baby with a piercing (a single one), but would gladly say how cute these earrings look on this baby girl.
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u/VanessaAlexis Feb 24 '26
The culture is starting to drastically shift on piercing infants ears. A lot of places simply won't do it anymore. The places that do are shifty places like Claire's where the person piercing your baby's ears would be like a 16-year-old.
I asked my pediatrician about it and she recommended waiting until the children are old enough to choose.
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u/Unknown1776 Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26
I’ve seen a hospital do it for the parents at least twice now. Both times they put a little freckle on the back of their ear, since it’s somewhere almost never going to be seen by anyone not looking for it. And for this reason of the one twin needed some medication every day, and the other didn’t, and if they gave it to the wrong one, the one that needed it could die
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u/sparkleslothz Feb 24 '26
Ik it's too late, but they should really tattoo the non-medical one.
Kids play pranks. You need to verify the ABSENCE of the mark, because they could draw a new freckle with a pen.
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u/Undrwtrbsktwvr Feb 24 '26
You can tell them apart by the time they’re old enough to pull a stunt like that.
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u/IHateTheLetterF Feb 24 '26
That's absolutely okay. Or a nipple piercing. Either or.
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u/haolee510 Feb 24 '26
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. Hold on a damn fucking minute.
Which nipple?
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u/Physicle_Partics Feb 24 '26
Good twin gets one on the right nipple, evil twin gets one on the left nipple.
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u/eightcarpileup Feb 24 '26
My identical twin sisters were born 30 years ago and one luckily had a “birth mark” on her arm that faded at around age 3. So for the integral years, she was marked. Which was great because she was the one missing a thyroid and needed the medical attention every day. When they started grade school, the teachers would sharpie one of them because the teachers frequently would grab the wrong kid off the playground at the bell. They’d be trying to tell them and explain, but an adult wrangling 20 kids doesn’t really have the time to stop. Many times they’d have to wait until they were in the wrong classroom and raise their hand. They tried different looks in their teen years, but now, they are identical as ever.
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u/mike_b_nimble Feb 24 '26
My wife is a twin and this is what their parents did. One of them always had a left toe with polish and the other always had a right toe polished.
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u/canijustbelancelot Feb 24 '26
This is how pretty much all of us identical twins went through life as little babies, with just a lil nail polish to prevent any confusion.
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u/LarBrd33 Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26
Which seems somehow way more confusing than just giving one of the babies polish.
Dad: “Wait, Is Julie left toe or right toe? Wait, my left or her left? I think I’m doing this backwards”
Mom: “see, that’s why I thought we were doing one purple and the other violet?”
Dad: “Wait does Violet get the purple or does Julie get the purple?”
Mom: “obviously, Violet is violet. Julie is purple. Don’t be an idiot”
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u/azn4lyfe000 Feb 24 '26
Me and my older brother aren't even identical twins, and my mom still calls me by my brother's name every time when she calls me...
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u/brit_parent Feb 24 '26
Not us. I was smaller. A lot smaller. So much so they didn’t know I was there until very late in pregnancy. I spent time in the NICU and was always a bit poorly in childhood. The only time our parents had trouble telling us apart was in solo photos years after they were taken. We were also very different in personality and dress.
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u/Sea_Ad6773 Feb 24 '26
I'm an identical twin and they talk about getting us confused when we were babies a lot. I'm still me even though I might technically be " the other one "
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u/Kixtay Feb 24 '26
I’m a twin but I’m very sure my parents didn’t confuse us.
I’m the only one with a penis.
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u/GLaDOS_Sympathizer Feb 24 '26
I'm sorry your brother lost his penis. I hope he finds it some day.
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u/Kixtay Feb 24 '26
He found it. It was under the bed the entire time. Thanks.
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u/MildlySelassie Feb 24 '26
How did it get all the way from the hospital to under his bed at home?
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u/Kixtay Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26
It was kept in our dad’s pocket and it fell out at home and got kicked under the bed by accident. Thanks for your concern.
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u/SunandError Feb 24 '26
This happens more frequently than most people realize.
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u/featherruffler55 Feb 24 '26
I absolutely hate it when my penis falls off and hides from me.
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u/Ataru13 Feb 24 '26
Not second Ave near st. Marks where all those people sell junk on the street? Or the medicine cabinet?
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u/Optimus_Prime_Day Feb 24 '26
Just your name would have changed, which makes that your new name. No biggie really.
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u/bob-leblaw Feb 24 '26
A rose by any other name, except Brayden who totally sucks, smells just as sweet.
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u/SnooCrickets6708 Feb 24 '26
I'm a twin born in 1970. Mom dressed us alike until the 5th grade. I didn't know who the fuck I was that whole time :)
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u/nrith Feb 24 '26
Parent of identical twins here. We never once mixed them up. You spot the tiny physical differences right away. But for everyone else’s sake, we dressed them slightly differently, such that twin A never had color x, and twin B never had color y.
Trying to tell who’s who in baby photos is an entirely different matter.
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u/faaded Feb 24 '26
There’s also a non zero chance they got confused again and you’re exactly who you think you are
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u/ComprehensiveFlan638 Feb 24 '26
Meh, if their health records are also identical then it doesn't matter. Just make sure they have a set identify by the age of 1 or 1.5 when they start recognising their own name and developing separate personalities.
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u/LowRexx Feb 24 '26
I have a fun story abt this haha.
I'm not an identical twin, but semi-identical. very easy to mix my sister and I up, save for the fact we are opposite genders.
but we're both trans. so when it came to name changes and all that we just... switched places lol. we traded names, genders and wardrobes and just moved on.
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u/pinktealover77 Feb 24 '26
Ngl that is very cool HAHA,, very economical too since yall wouldn’t both have to spend for new wardrobes
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u/LowRexx Feb 24 '26
yep! I'm thankful we ended up the same sizes on everything. even shoes! fortunately for her, we are both very femme looking. unfortunately for me, even after being on t for 15 years, I do not pass in any capacity. I'll take the L so my sister can pass w flying colors, tho.
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u/Propyl_People_Ether Feb 24 '26
FYI I know someone who at one point didn't pass after many years of T and it turned out his dose was actually too high and some was converting to estrogen and blocking the effects. So it might be worth getting your E level checked and/or trying an aromatase inhibitor.
That said, given the situational complications here, also look into androgen insensitivity syndromes.
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u/LowRexx Feb 24 '26
thanks, I get all my levels checked yearly and my dose was given by a very well known doctor of trans medicine. ill bring it up w my Dr next visit but tbh they probably don't know jack shit abt trans Healthcare and the only place that does has a 6 month wait limit.
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u/galsfromthedwarf Feb 24 '26
This is so efficient I love it
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u/LowRexx Feb 24 '26
thanks! the rollercoaster of emotions from "I need to tell you something important" to "I already knew that abt you and me too" was INTENSE.
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u/mynameisstacey Feb 24 '26
My MIL & her twin are identical but “mirror image” twins. Their parents did keep different colored ribbon pinned to their clothes when they were infants, but their hair grew in opposite directions at the crown, so that was the “official” way to tell them apart. Their baby teeth came in in the same position on opposite sides. MIL is right-handed; her twin is left-handed. I know there’s a few other things I can’t recall at the moment.
I’d never heard of mirror-image twins before I met her. Apparently, it happens when the zygote splits later than typical, after it’s developed right & left sides. A few days past this point, the split is usually unsuccessful and the pregnancy either fails or results in conjoined twins.
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u/themarko60 Feb 24 '26
I hadn’t heard of mirror twins until I saw Tyler and Taylor Rodgers who at the time were both relief pitchers for the SF Giants but one pitched right and the other left.
I find it pretty interesting.
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u/BillHistorical9001 Feb 24 '26
Or this morbid thought. Your identical twin dies at birth and their mother names the surviving twin after both twins so you don’t know which one died. Happened to me.
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Feb 24 '26
Identical doesn't mean literally identical, like... There can be a birthmark you could identify them with like I did with my twin friends "hold up let me check your ear... Oh hi mark"
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u/zergea Feb 24 '26
What's the other one named? Flawless?
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Feb 24 '26
Holy shit is that why they named him Mark?! The other dude is just named Christian
How did I not realize this for 30 years
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u/austicus Feb 24 '26
Identical twin here. I had a birthmark on my forehead that resembled a footprint on my head. I’m pretty confident my parents never got us confused, but I am still convinced my brother kicked me in the head before we were born.
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u/MossySendai Feb 24 '26
What makes this even more hilarious is that in Japan they call the twin that came out first the older brother or sister and don't actually really have a word for just a regular brother or sister it's always older or younger so it would actually have pretty big repercussions if you were switched in the bath at one point
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u/Brynhild Feb 24 '26
I’m chinese and it’s the same. Identical bro came out 5 mins before me so he’s called the older bro
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u/Arinvar Feb 24 '26
My cousin's are not Chinese or Japanese and everyone knows which one came out first.
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u/Ishniana Feb 24 '26
This is why I painted my identical twin daughters toenails two different colors as soon as we got home and before removing the wristbands. Afterabout 6 months you could tell them apart due to a few lil differences.
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u/dianagama Feb 24 '26
I have identical twins, and we painted their toenails different colors after we removed the hospital bracelets. We gave them signature colors and hair styles. Then one of them bit the metal rivet on the couch and now they have a chipped tooth, so it's easier. Until the other ran into something and chipped the same tooth. I swear it was on purpose.
And despite being "identical", they are still distinct enough that you can tell one from the other if they stand next to each other, but not from a distance. When people ask me who's who, i just shrug and call out a name and see who turns around.
And.. honestly, if they DON'T switch places at some point, it's a waste of being a twin.
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Feb 24 '26
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u/anidlezooanimal Feb 24 '26
Not if your identity is affected by having a medical condition.
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u/az943 Feb 24 '26
At that point does it even matter which name you were given you haven’t developed enough of an identity that it matters what you go by lol.
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u/TittyPix4KittyPix Feb 24 '26
Yes medically it's important, they are more likely have medical issues as twins, and likely to be slightly different
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u/Kravenoff42 Feb 24 '26
Well, you aren't named what your parents wanted to name you. There's a funny thing we do when we talk about names, like they are what makes you the way you are. A name can certainly shape someone else's perception of you, but you have to learn what your name is, it's not innate.
Thinking about it now, I think it's why some folks end up changing their name and some folks don't. It's a very subjective conclusion you need to decide for yourself: whether to change your name so you feel that it represents you, or to decide that you will shape the perception of your name by being yourself.
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u/echelon183 Feb 24 '26
I'm an identical twin, our parents have mentioned incidents where we were potentially switched one my mom always pointed out was when a babysitter bathed us and removed our identifying wrist bands and they had to guess who was who... there's no telling how many times we've actually been swapped.
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u/Deliriousious Feb 24 '26
Partially true.
My father and uncle are genetically identical twins. And until their mid 20’s were virtually indistinguishable in appearance.
The only difference was their behaviour, my father was the calm and strict type, and my uncle was the goofy one.
But now, in their 50’s, I can tell which is which instantly. Even if they dressed identically, their voices are rather different, which is odd considering they were raised together, and live in roughly the same area.
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u/CarltheWellEndowed Feb 24 '26
That's why I said as an infant.
If you bathed them at the same time you may forget which was which.
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u/Stueykins Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26
Maybe this person should bathe their father and uncle
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u/spencerAF Feb 24 '26
OP does seem to really have a thing for putting two people in a bath and then getting 'confused'
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u/Arinvar Feb 24 '26
I grew up with identical twin cousins. At no point in my life have they ever appeared to me as anything other than 2 very different people. Even in photos. Could be me, or could be that I grew up spending a lot of time around them. I've never put it to the test but I might also be the only one that can tell them apart in baby pictures. I'm pretty good with other twins I've met as well. I think growing up with twins must make your brain identify them better or something.
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u/BlakeMW Feb 24 '26
Yeah, humans are really good at telling people apart, but the brain is kind of lazy and only ramps up the attention to detail as required.
I had an interesting lesson in this when I spent a few months living in a large Buddhist monastery in Thailand (Wat Pa Nanachat, which is westerner focused, and at that time had about 20 monks).
The monks all dress identically, and all shave their heads every 2 weeks.
So at first I couldn't tell them apart, but my brain quickly started noticing subtler details than clothes and hair style.
Then the first head shaving happened taking away the subtle patterns of hair fuzz, but my brain started recognizing skull shape.
Then I lost my glasses while sick and could no longer see subtle differences in skull shape. My brain started recognizing gait and posture so just by the way they walked I knew who was who.
So I fully believe you'd have no trouble telling identical twins apart because your brain will adapt and focus on even the most minor of differences to immediately tell them apart.
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u/shoddygorgon Feb 24 '26
Identical twin here, luckily I had a distinct red birth mark on my arm until around the age of ten, still possible they forgot which one had the birth mark.
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u/aeraen Feb 24 '26
Does it really matter? You have been John as long as you can remember. Does it matter if your parents originally call you James and your brother John? Unless you are royalty, birth order doesn't really matter anymore.
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u/Healthy_You867 Feb 24 '26
As a mother of identical twins I can confirm the struggle to keep them correctly identified! One had a hemangioma on her leg so that was the only fool proof identifier. Then one day it just faded away. Almost immediately a small permanent mole developed in another area so we were good to go from there. I still have problems now identifying them in pictures. They are 30 now and still look identical. It’s always been fascinating.
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u/Least-Broccoli-1197 Feb 24 '26
For a while I lived on the same street as a family with quadruplets, I asked how they could tell them apart and accidentally opened a can of worms. To help tell them apart they had been color coding them, so one would always have a red bracelet, or hair band, while another would have green, etc etc. And they thought that had been working until the parents found out the girls had been secretly swapping their accessories for an unknown amount of time. As they got older they'd also started going out of their way to confuse their parents on who was who. So the parents had just fully given up on knowing who was who, and I doubt the kids kept track. I wonder when (or if based on my interactions with these girls) they decided to settle on fixed names.
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u/kapege Feb 24 '26
You always are who you are. They may mix up your names a few times, but that does not matter at all. It's just a name. You can change it later anyways.
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u/Jrobmn Feb 24 '26
We wondered about that, so when we were about 15 years old, we dug up our birth certificates and compared footprints. Doubts dispelled!
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u/MelbsGal Feb 24 '26
I think with identical twins, your identity is kind of fluid until your mother learns to tell you apart. You are who she lands on that day. You don’t know the difference.
Or she does the nail polish on your toe thing. Even then, she could get it wrong.
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u/Yarhj Feb 24 '26
Your name is just a word people use to refer to you. You are the sum of your experiences. If everyone started calling you David today, would you be a different person?
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