Etienne Cherdlu

[David Casseres]

I wouldn't read too much into Pynchon's use of a play on the string 
ETAOIN SHRDLU.  It's a very familiar thing to people older than, say, 50. 
 Many of us used it for years to stand for "a meaningless string of 
letters" without being aware of its origins in the top row of keys on a 
Linotype.  Pynchon makes names out of all sorts of bits and pieces of 
common usage, often without much effort to exploit the original meanings.

Cheers,
David