Why do we call people redheads instead of orangeheads?

abigail

As a father of a redhead, I found the article above on Grammar Girl interesting from Gretchen McCulloch of All Things Linguistic. It turns out that one aspect of it is that at the time the term originated red and orange were not distinguished, but that can't completely explain why other possibilities were not used. The article includes a podcast as well for those who prefer to listen to things.