Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become the most important chronic liver disease in the world, but there is still no approved drug for clinical practice. Due to the heterogeneity of NAFLD itself, although drug therapy is being developed, the response rate seems to remain low. In order to meet the needs of clinical trial design and provide accurate information for drug developers, relevant scholars have proposed to change the name of NAFLD to metabolic associated fatty liver disease This article summarizes the origin of NAFLD heterogeneity and the background of NAFLD renaming, so as to provide new ideas for accelerating the development of new therapies.