The Atmel AVR Microcontroller, 1st ed. [P. 173; 6.10.1]
For a register larger than 16 bits, the bytes are numbered from the least significant byte. For example, the 32-bit ADC calibration register is named CAL. The four bytes are named CAL0, CAL1, CAL2, CAL3 (from the least to the most significant byte).
So in a 8-bit system we shouldn't even do:
REGHH REGHL REGLH REGLL
but:
REG3 REG2 REG1 REG0