Where the name comes from
The main line belongs to the Jiang (姜) clan of the state of Qi. According to the Song dynasty encyclopedia Tongzhi, Gao Xi (高傒) was granted the surname in honour of his grandfather Prince Gao (公子高), a son of Duke Wen of Qi. An older tradition recorded in the Lüshi Chunqiu names Gao Yuan (高元) as the earliest bearer, credited with building the first dwellings in antiquity.
The same name, spelled differently
A Chinese surname is a character, not a spelling. The Latin letters on a passport come from whichever dialect the name was written down from — so these are all 高.
- GaoMandarin — mainland China, Taiwan
- KoCantonese — Hong Kong and Guangdong
- KouCantonese
- KoHokkien
The character
Outside a name, 高 is an ordinary word meaning high.
- Strokes
- 10
- Radical
- 高
- As a word
- gāo
Words built from 高
The character does ordinary work in the language too. Each of these is a real word you can look up.