Yes, you can, but only for a limited amount of time. When I tried it, the time period was 120 days, but this may have been changed to 90 days. EDIT: It seems that this is now 180 days, based on the comments below.
A developer can choose enter information about the application before uploading it, but Apple will remove the app and it's meta information if the name is not used within the grace period. You cannot use the name ever again after that.
I have, however, some apps that were rejected on the first review and were never re-submitted. It seems that those names are still available to me. Just don't submit a really lame first submission or Apple will know that you are "parking" the name.
Here's a screenshot of my email from Apple:
