The early ballads link Robin Hood to identifiable real places. In popular culture, Robin Hood and his band of "merry men" are portrayed as living in Sherwood Forest, in Nottinghamshire. [131] Notably, the Lincoln Cathedral Manuscript, which is the first officially recorded Robin Hood song (dating from approximately 1420), makes an explicit reference to the outlaw that states that "Robyn hode in scherewode stod". [132] In a similar fashion, a monk of Witham Priory (1460) suggested that the archer had 'infested shirwode'. His chronicle entry reads: Alexander, Wyntown (1872). Laing, David (ed.). The Orygynale Cronykil Of Scotland. By Androw of Wyntoun. Vol.2. Edmonston and Douglas. p.263. Vahimagi, Tise (1994). British Television: An Illustrated Guide. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-818336-4. Fixing the Robin Hood story to the 1190s had been first proposed by John Major in his Historia Majoris Britanniæ (1521), (and he also may have been influenced in so doing by the story of Warin); [52] this was the period in which King Richard was absent from the country, fighting in the Third Crusade. [57]

Another view on the origin of the name is expressed in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica which remarks that "hood" was a common dialectical form of "wood" (compare Dutch hout, pronounced /hʌut/, also meaning "wood"), and that the outlaw's name has been given as "Robin Wood". [98] There are a number of references to Robin Hood as Robin Wood, or Whood, or Whod, from the 16th and 17th centuries. The earliest recorded example, in connection with May games in Somerset, dates from 1518. [99] Early references "Robin shoots with Sir Guy" by Louis RheadRitson's friend Walter Scott used Ritson's anthology collection as a source for his picture of Robin Hood in Ivanhoe, written in 1818, which did much to shape the modern legend. [82] Child ballads

Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham (Child Ballad 139,in Forresters titled Robin Hood and the Forresters I) Through retellings, additions, and variations, a body of familiar characters associated with Robin Hood has been created. These include his lover, Maid Marian; his band of outlaws, the Merry Men; and his chief opponent, the Sheriff of Nottingham. The Sheriff is often depicted as assisting Prince John in usurping the rightful but absent King Richard, to whom Robin Hood remains loyal. He became a popular folk figure in the Late Middle Ages, and his partisanship of the common people and opposition to the Sheriff are some of the earliest-recorded features of the legend, whereas his political interests and setting during the Angevin era developed in later centuries. The earliest known ballads featuring him are from the 15th century. The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield (Child Ballad 124, two versions in Forresters, titled there Robin Hood and the Pinder of Wakefield) Hilton, R. H., The Origins of Robin Hood, Past and Present, No. 14. (Nov. 1958), pp.30–44. JSTOR 650091Since the 1980s, it has become commonplace to include a Saracen ( Arab/ Muslim) among the Merry Men, a trend that began with the character Nasir in the 1984 ITV Robin of Sherwood television series. Later versions of the story have followed suit: a version of Nasir appears in the 1991 movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Azeem) and the 2006 BBC TV series Robin Hood ( Djaq). [89] Spoofs have also followed this trend, with the 1990s BBC sitcom Maid Marian and her Merry Men parodying the Moorish character with Barrington, a Rastafarian rapper played by Danny John-Jules, [93] and Mel Brooks comedy Robin Hood: Men in Tights featuring Isaac Hayes as Asneeze and Dave Chappelle as his son Ahchoo. The 2010 movie version Robin Hood, did not include a Saracen character. The 2018 adaptation Robin Hood portrays the character of Little John as a Muslim named Yahya, played by Jamie Foxx.