Chinese name character

Chinese name character 高

gāo

The character 高 (Mandarin gāo) appears in 1 name and 2 syllables in this reference and is spelled Kow and Kor in Malaysia. Recorded meanings include “high, tall”.

Names and syllables: 3
Malaysian spellings: 2
Strokes: 10
Attested in records: 2

3 names and syllables in this reference have 高 as one of their character options. For 2 of them, 高 is attested in records of real names; the rest are possible characters for that spelling.

Meanings of 高: the recorded options

high, tall
in 4 character options · attested

Unihan definition: high, tall; lofty, elevated; Kangxi radical 189

What a name means depends on the characters the family chose and how they combine; these are options, not one definite meaning.

Malaysian spellings of 高

高 yields 2 spellings in our records. The label under each spelling is the romanization it follows, not the bearer’s dialect.

Spelling	Romanization	attested in name records
Kow	Hokkien · Cantonese · Teochew	attested in name records
Kor	Hokkien · Teochew	possible

Readings of 高 by dialect

Dialect	Reading	Malaysian spelling
HokkienPe̍h-ōe-jī	ko, kau	Kow, Kor
CantoneseJyutping	gou1	Kow
TeochewPeng’im	gao1, go1	Kow, Kor
MandarinHanyu Pinyin	gāo	–

Readings from the character options in our name records; Unihan gives Mandarin gāo and Cantonese gou1.

1 names that can be written with 高

Kow Meng♂高明 · 高銘

2 syllables that can stand for 高

Sources

Wiktionary: 高 · en.wiktionary.org · meaning
MDBG: 高 · mdbg.net · meaning
Unicode Unihan Database: U+9AD8 · unicode.org · meaning

Readings, meanings and stroke count: the character options in our name records and the Unicode Unihan Database (Unicode License). A spelling describes how a name is written, not anyone’s dialect or background.

Frequently asked questions

What does 高 mean in a name?

Our records give several meanings for 高, including “high, tall”. What a name actually means depends on the characters the family chose and how they combine.

How is 高 spelled in Malaysia?

In our records 高 is spelled Kow (Hokkien, Cantonese, Teochew) and Kor (Hokkien, Teochew). A spelling follows a dialect’s romanization; it does not show which dialect anyone speaks.

Is every Kow written 高?

Not necessarily. The spelling Kow can also stand for 玖. Only the family knows which character was chosen.