According to Wikipedia, AVR stands for either 'Advanced Virtual RISC' or 'Alf and Vegard [RISC]':
The AVR basic architecture was conceived by two students at the Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTH) Alf-Egil Bogen and Vegard Wollan.
The internal architecture was further developed by Alf and Vergard at Atmel Norway, a subsidiary of Atmel founded by the two architects.
The acronym AVR has been reported to stand for Advanced Virtual RISC, but it has also been rumoured to stand for the initials chip's designers: Alf and Vegard [RISC].
hi.....
i m a newbie in the embedded field.....(though i 've studied about 8051 & PIC microcontrollers but not made any project)
so i need a suggestion that whether i shud go for studyin AVR microcontroller or shud i first go for some project in 8051 or PIC... coz i ve done d interfacin on simulators for these..