Haley Hodge, a North Carolina mother of four (with number four still in utero!), explained her recent quest to name her baby in a caption beside her now viral Tik Tok video: “When cemeteries hold the prettiest baby names, so you take the family to look for baby girl’s name.”
The clip shows Haley, her husband Rivers, and their three young children Finley, Crew, and Banks strolling through the Old Smithville Burial Ground in Southport, North Carolina. Haley answered questions from viewers' comments as to whether she found her other kids' names in this same manner -- she did not. Rather, her older three kids were named in more conventional ways, with the help of baby books and from names she heard on TV.
As the Hodge family meanders around the tombstones, they call out interesting names to one another like 'Fisher' and 'Sailer.' They're seen pushing weeds away from headstones and respectfully placing flowers on some of the graves.
It's no surprise Haley's video received a lot of mixed attention -- both positive and negative.
"Beautiful," one follower wrote. "It's important to remember the dead."
But there were many comments like, "Creepy!" Others spoke of superstitions associated with ghosts and pregnant women: "...this is a dangerous game you're playing."
Confusion among the public -- also in the Church?
From a Catholic point of view, the mixed reviews among Haley's followers speak of the general public confusion in regard to how we're supposed to relate to the dead. This type of confusion is also commonly reflected by the comments people often make when a person dies. You've seen: "God just needed another angel." But nope -- God doesn't need anything from us humans, and the concept of a human turning into an angel is simply not a tenet of the Faith. When we die we can become saints (even if we're never canonized), but we won't ever become angels.
Fortunately, the Church offers a lot of guidance about death and how we should relate to it as Christians.
To start, the CCC explains:
989 We firmly believe, and hence we hope that, just as Christ is truly risen from the dead and lives forever, so after death the righteous will live forever with the risen Christ and he will raise them up on the last day. Our resurrection, like his own, will be the work of the Most Holy Trinity.
While Haley doesn't mention seeking saintly intercession or praying for souls in purgatory, these practices are important parts of our Christian faith and are greatly encouraged. That being said, any form of seance or attempts to conjure the dead are strictly forbidden.
On this, the Catechism explains:
2116 All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to "unveil" the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.
A few weeks after the release of Haley's viral video, she posted a follow-up clip complete with her baby girl's name-reveal: 'Salem,' a moniker meaning 'peaceful, safe, complete.'
Haley explains how she found the name on the tombstone of a US Coast Guard Veteran who fought in WWII. Interestingly, this man was married but had no children. Haley discusses this and other interesting facts she's gathered about her fourth child's namesake, and closes with a message of gratitude:
"Thank you, Salem, for being an honorary grandpa to our baby girl and for inspiring us to bring new life to your name."
