the us government literally calls it the ar-15 armalite rifle in the first source on wikipedia, ergo the AR must stand for something different than ArmaLite Rifle. it stands for assault rifle. I'm dying on this hill. i refuse to believe that a gun manufacturing company is that shit at naming conventions. fuck you
Actually it's short for "the ArmaLite AR-pattern assault rifle model AR-15 assault rifle by the ArmaLite assault rifle company"
The Soviets used to name certain weapons this way and it ruled. Me and my comrades smashing Nazi tanks with our 76mm Divisional Gun Model 1942 (Factory named after Stalin-3).