Wait, do people in the US really call them "orange cats" - I just thought that was a reddit / internet thing.

In the UK these are ginger cats.

Yes. But we also call redheads "redheads" as a rule, not "gingers" - except that the "ginger" thing has filtered over here via the Internet in the past, I dunno, 20 years.

Like, I can't recall anybody describing a redheaded person as a "ginger" in the 80s or 90s, (location: Missouri) it's something I've only encountered since there's been more language cross-pollination due to the Internet.

I thought it was popularized by internet/Reddit as a joke denoting that ginger cats are "special": https://www.reddit.com/r/OneOrangeBraincell/

We call them orange cats (gatos laranjas) in Portuguese too!

We use both terms here. Ginger has become more popular recently, probably due to UK Internet influence over recent years.

Many places outside the US call them orange as well.

I always found this funny as well. We say ginger cats (chats roux) in French too!

Cookie vs biscuit, vacation vs holiday, gasoline vs petrol, etc, etc.

You might be shocked that we say "red heads" instead of ginger as well.

In the US, "ginger" is a seasoning, not a color. Like, in general; we do not refer to anything as being ginger-colored unless it's a sort of pale yellowish tan.

Hey now, that's prejudice!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVN_0qvuhhw

in italian we call them "red cats"

I always called the orange even when I was in the UK.

In Australia they're known an ranga cats (ranga as in orangutan).

I'm in the US, but through cultural osmosis, ginger in the UK context is in my vocabulary. I think things like this are going to coalesce, slowly.

UK and USA are brotherly nations divided only by their common language.

They are mostly tabbies at the end of the day. But colloquially, yes: the US tends to simply call them orange.