The "new layer" dialog saves the name of the last layer created via the dialog. Juts set it to blank once, it will create a layer with a default name, and will remain empty (until you fill that field...).
Otherwise, a lot of bugs and minor annoyances have been fixed since RC2... upgrading would be a good idea.
Otherwise, a lot of bugs and minor annoyances have been fixed since RC2... upgrading would be a good idea.