The variant form like father, like daughter also occurs. Like mother, like daughter evolved separately, although both it and this proverb were fixed in this form in the seventeenth century. Cf. L. qualis pater talis filius, as is the father, so is the son.

Ill sunnys folous ill fadirs.
[c 1340 R. Rolle Psalter (1884) 342]

An olde prouerbe hath longe agone be sayde That oft the sone in maners lyke wyll be Vnto the Father.
[1509 A. Barclay Ship of Fools 98]

Like father like sonne.
[1616 T. Draxe Adages 149]

Like Father, like Son. ‥How many Sons inherit their Fathers Failings, as well as Estates?
[1709 O. Dykes English Proverbs 30]

Perhaps Lydia might do it once too often. ‥Like father, like daughter.
[1936 W. Holtby South Riding v. i.]

And like son, like father, if one may so vary the old expression. Neither of them reading men.
[1983 ‘M. Innes’ Appleby & Honeybath xii.]

Related to: children and parents; similarity and dissimilarity

Bibliography of major proverb collections and works cited from modern editions is available here.

The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs. Copyright © 1982, 1992, 1998, 2003, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.