What Is the Baby Gender Pencil Test?

By Staff Writer | Last Updated August 4, 2015

The baby gender pencil test is a folk tradition in which a person suspends a pencil above a woman’s wrist, and the direction it swings is purported to predict the gender of the baby. The test can be performed on a woman regardless of her maternity status, and it predicts the gender of her children in order.

To perform the test, take a sharpened pencil, and stick a needle into the eraser on top of the pencil. Thread a piece of sewing thread through the needle. The thread can be of any thickness, but it has to be long enough that the pencil can hang freely. The test cannot be performed outside or near any type of fan because any type of wind can change the results.

The woman undergoing the test places her arm on a sturdy surface, palm up. Hold the thread so that the tip of the pencil barely touches the woman’s wrist. The pencil should begin to move in small circles. Eventually, it should start swinging up and down the length of the arm or side to side across the wrist. If it moves up and down, tradition states that the women is to have or has had a boy. If it moves side to side, the baby is to be or was a girl. If the test is performed correctly, the pencil moves in small circles between each prediction. If a girl is predicted first, the pencil moves side to side for a while and then swings in small circles again before it predicts the gender of the second child.