One of the most common misconceptions of the AR-15 is that people think AR stands for Assault Rifle or Automatic Rifle. ArmaLite Rifles came out with the AR-15 model back in the late 1950s.
Colt bought the AR-15 design from ArmaLite in 1959. The patent for the design expired in the 1970s leading to other manufacturers to make similar models. Those models have their own designated name unique to the manufacturer but with the popularity of this style of rifle, the generic term people use is AR-15.
