02/01/2026
Why doesn't MyHeritage recognise Cypriot DNA as its' own Unique ethnicity? 🇨🇾🧬
I see this question come up a lot in forums.
A lot of people are surprised when DNA results don’t list “Cypriot” as a standalone ethnicity. The reason is that DNA tests don’t actually measure nationality or cultural identity. They measure genetic similarity to reference populations.
Companies like MyHeritage group people into broad genetic clusters based on DNA patterns from populations that stayed relatively isolated in the same region for many generations. Cyprus, historically, doesn’t fit that model.
For thousands of years, Cyprus has been a crossroads of the Eastern Mediterranean. Ancient Greeks, Anatolians, Levantines, Romans, Byzantines, Ottomans, and many others passed through, settled, traded, and intermarried. Genetically, this created continuity, but not isolation.
As a result, Cypriot DNA tends to overlap with surrounding regions such as:
• Greek & South Italian
• West Asian / Anatolian
• Middle Eastern / Levantine
From an algorithm’s perspective, that overlap makes it difficult to define Cypriots as a single, clearly separate genetic cluster. So instead of labelling it “Cypriot,” the DNA gets distributed across neighbouring regions.
This doesn’t mean Cypriots lack a distinct identity. Cypriot identity is historical, cultural, linguistic, and lived, shaped by centuries of shared experience on the island. DNA testing just isn’t very good at capturing that complexity yet.
MyHeritage uses very broad genetic clusters and is cautious about creating new ethnicity labels unless a population is clearly distinct and genetically isolated over a long period. Because Cypriots share significant genetic overlap with surrounding regions (Greek, South Italian, Anatolian, Levantine), MyHeritage usually spreads Cypriot DNA across neighbouring categories rather than defining it as its own.
AncestryDNA and 23andMe take a different approach.
They:
Use much larger reference datasets
Apply more granular regional modelling
Are more willing to define sub-populations, even when genetic boundaries are subtle
This allows them to label “Cypriot” as a distinct category or sub-region, even though the DNA still overlaps heavily with nearby populations.
In other words:
Ancestry & 23andMe prioritise resolution and regional storytelling
MyHeritage prioritises conservative clustering and statistical certainty
Neither approach is inherently “more correct”. They’re answering slightly different questions:
Where does your DNA broadly fit? (MyHeritage)
Which specific historical populations does it most resemble? (Ancestry / 23andMe)
What all of them agree on, whether they name it or not, is that Cypriots form a long-standing population shaped by the Eastern Mediterranean, with deep local roots and layers of historical mixing.
So when one test says “Cypriot” and another doesn’t, it’s not erasing identity.
It’s showing the limits of how algorithms interpret a region that has always been a bridge rather than a boundary.
DNA can measure similarity.
Culture carries continuity.
Cyprus has always carried both
