Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Strategic Review volume 1, number 2 introduced the ranger to tabletop gaming in 1975. This new class drew its primary inspiration from Aragorn and the Rangers of the North found in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth mythos.
Writers included Robin Hood and Jack the Giant Killer as influences alongside the huntress Diana and the Greek hero Orion. The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons second edition handbook listed these sources from myth and legend.
Fifth edition Player's Handbook released in 2014 included the ranger as a half-caster class. At third level players chose between the Hunter archetype and the Beast Master subclass.
Poor class-specific abilities combined with weak damage output drove this criticism. Screen Rant rated the ranger class as the least powerful class of the base twelve character classes in fifth edition.
Gus Wezerek reported data from D&D Beyond usage reports between August 15 and the 15th of September 2017 showing Elf ranger became the second most created character out of all class and race combinations. Rangers ranked sixth most created at 8,887 total characters per 100,000 generated.