So… How Do Mermaids Have Babies?
People search some fascinating questions:
How do mermaids have babies?
Do mermaids mate?
Do they give birth underwater?
How would sirens reproduce?
Short answer: mermaids aren’t real.
Long answer: humans have been imagining their birth stories for thousands of years - and those stories are surprisingly rich.
Let’s dive in!
First: where do mermaids even come from?
Mermaids have been appearing in human stories for thousands of years, long before modern books, films, or cartoons gave them a single, fixed shape.
One of the earliest known mermaid figures comes from ancient Assyria, where the goddess Atargatis was often depicted as part woman and part fish. In Greek mythology, sirens were said to lure sailors with their voices, while in Celtic folklore, selkies- seal-people who could shift between sea and human form- told stories of love, loss, and longing.
Across West Africa and the Caribbean, powerful water spirits like Mami Wata were honoured as symbols of fertility, beauty, and life-giving force. Although these myths come from very different cultures, they share a common thread: wherever humans lived near water, they imagined beings who belonged to it. Mermaids emerged as a way to make sense of the ocean’s mystery - and our own origins within it.
So… how do mermaids have babies? (The fun part)
Because mermaids belong to myth, there isn’t one single answer. Different cultures, stories, and eras imagined their reproduction in different ways - often borrowing from what humans already knew about bodies, animals, and magic.
🧜♀️ Option 1: Like humans, but underwater
In many modern stories, mermaids reproduce much like humans do. They fall in love or mate with mermen, experience pregnancy, and give birth while remaining fully submerged in water. This version often mirrors human birth, just adapted to an underwater world - where breathing isn’t an issue and water is the natural environment rather than something to be managed or escaped. It’s a popular interpretation because it feels emotionally familiar and easy to imagine.
🐬 Option 2: Like sea mammals
Another common idea is that mermaids reproduce more like dolphins, whales, or seals. In these stories, birth is live rather than egg-based, babies are strong swimmers from the start, and labour happens within a pod or community. This version appeals to people because it feels almost biologically plausible - if a half-human sea creature existed, this is how it might work. It blends fantasy with real ocean life in a way that feels grounded and gentle.
🐚 Option 3: Eggs, pearls, or magic
Older myths and fairytales sometimes take a more magical approach. Mermaid babies may be born from eggs hidden in coral, emerge from shells or pearls, or come into being through spells, transformations, or sea foam. These stories lean less toward biology and more toward symbolism, portraying mermaids not as another species, but as magical beings tied to creation itself. This is where myth becomes poetry rather than explanation.
Do sirens reproduce the same way?
Not exactly. In the earliest myths, sirens weren’t fish-tailed mermaids at all.
In ancient Greek stories, they were part woman and part bird, known less for their bodies and more for their voices. Sirens were dangerous, enchanting, and often immortal, which meant they were rarely imagined as mothers or caregivers. Their power lay in song, temptation, and transformation, not in fertility or birth. Over time, as myths blended and evolved, sirens and mermaids began to look more alike in art and popular culture. Even then, mermaids were more often associated with family, cycles, and creation, while sirens remained symbols of desire and danger.
A simple way to think about it is this: sirens lure and disrupt, while mermaids nurture and belong.
Why are we so curious about mermaid birth?
This might be the most interesting part. Birth is mysterious. Water feels ancient and safe.
And imagining non-human bodies lets us explore questions that can feel uncomfortable when they’re too close to home.
Myths are where cultures store the questions they don’t know how to answer yet. Sometimes it’s easier to ask how a mermaid gives birth than to ask how humans do- and why it feels so complicated.
So… how do mermaids really have babies?
However the story needs them to; as swimmers, as mothers, as magical beings shaped by tides, imagination, and our oldest relationship with water.
Many cultures placed birth stories in water long before hospitals, manuals, or machines existed. Perhaps our fascination with mermaids isn’t about fantasy at all - but about remembering where life once felt held.
