when he returned, his story was written down by a person in his town and has been made into a slightly different version by daniel defoe who named it robinson crusoe. 'robinson crusoe' has been rewritten many times by lots of different people. there were some differences like how crusoe was stranded for over twenty years and selkirk, four. even though this story was based off selkirk, the exact island he was deserted on was renamed robinson crusoe island after previously being called juan fernández island.