The following is a direct quote from The Silmarillion...
"The Elves of Aman, and all Elves who ever dwelt in Aman were called the High Elves (Tareldar) and Elves of Light (Calaquendi).
"All Elves that did not cross the Great Sea were called Dark Elves (Moriquendi)."
BUT
"In the period of Exile of the Noldor it was often used of the Elves of Middle-earth (other than the Noldor and the Sindar) and is then virtually equivalent to Avari (the Unwilling, the Refusers - the name given to all those Elves who refused to join the westward march from Cuivenen.)"
So it appears that the meaning of High-elf changed with the Exile. Before the Exile it included ALL Elves who had dwelt in Aman. After the Exile it referred only those Elves who had dwelt in Aman AND joined the westward march.
There is no High-elf by extension...you had to have been one of the Firstborn who dwelt in Aman and crossed westward. Both Celeborn and Galadriel were High-elves but their daughter Celbrian is referred to only as a Noldor - she is not a High-Elf because she had never dwelt in Aman. Noldor is not synonymous with High-elf.
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- I must find the Mountain of Fire and cast the thing into the gulf of Doom. Gandalf said so. I do not think I shall ever get there.
- Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
- Where are we going?...And why am I in this handbasket?
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