The Wikipedia page makes reference to a 1950 letter of Eliot's regarding a connection to a Prufrock-Littau furniture company. In it he says, "I did not have, at the time of writing the poem, and have not yet recovered, any recollection of having acquired this name in any way, but I think that it must be assumed that I did, and that the memory has been obliterated." That seems, to me, to back up the "meaningless imitation" theory - he got the name Prufrock stuck in his head and made a nonsense copy of his own name using the similar structure.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Love_Song_of_J._Alfred_Prufrock

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