So what did they call the color orange before that? Or was the fruit the first time they'd seen the color orange?

I don't know the exact answer but generally speaking, colors were given names based on what we could correlate with nature or what we could manufacture. Read up on the British empire and the Indigo wars.

I am sure plenty of people saw sunrises and sunsets and flowers that were the color orange. But why do they need to have a name for it?

What is fuschia to you? Or teal? Or burgandy? Or turquoise? Or the myriad shades of darker orange? Until we arrived at artificial paints and displays, our colors were largely governed by what we saw in nature and what we could extract from nature.

I know right wingers will start calling all this sissy but truth is, all that goes out of the door when it comes to the color of their truck or SUV or home interior etc.