Here we go again. It’s time to play ‘guess the baby name’ as Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck hold back on releasing the name of their second daughter, born January 6.

This is not a new game. Last year, Brooke Burke and Jennifer Lopez, among others, took their time releasing baby names. In 2007, Brad Paisley, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Anna Belknap played it that way also. And the all-time record holder is Holly Hunter, who still has not released her twins’ names, even though they are about three years old now.

Sometimes, celeb parents might hold back the baby’s name because they really haven’t come up with a name yet. Brooke Burke and David Charvet genuinely struggled to come up with a name to hold its own with siblings Rain, Neriah, and Sierra (they finally named their son Shaya). Sometimes parents may do it out of concerns to protect the child’s privacy. (Good luck doing that in the age of the blogosphere).

But sometimes, I believe, celebs do it as a way of whipping up the media attention. And in the case of Affleck and Garner, it is working.

Want to join the public discourse on Garner and Affleck’s new baby’s name? You can guess the baby name at Nameberry. You can peruse the baby name suggestions at NowPublic. And you can check out ParentDish, where they claim, without any supporting evidence, that ‘one thing is for sure, though — Affleck has vowed to not give the new baby a crazy name.’

You get the picture. Hold back the baby name, whip up the media frenzy. But how tough can it be to come up with another girl name that goes well with Violet, the name of their three-year-old daughter? I’d come up with a few suggestions myself, if I hadn’t just written this post deriding other blogs for doing just that.

Suffice it to say, when the first baby photos sell to People or US Weekly for an obscene amount of money, somewhere there will be a P.R. operative quietly receiving a nice bonus…

UPDATE: January 10. I give up. I’m now playing the game also. Make your suggestions here for the Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck baby name.

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photo credit: PRPhotos
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