A trademark search is: looking to find trademarks (mostly names, icons, or slogans) - registered or in use - that are identical or confusingly similar to the mark you are planning to adopt. (If you’re serious about this, you really ought to hire a lawyer)

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You’re looking for trademarks for product or services that are similar to yours. In other words, if the mark you want is being used, what kind of product is it being used for?

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If you find an identical or similar mark for a similar product or service - It’s probably time to come up with a new name.  This is good! Your search has just saved you a lot of headaches and legal fees.  

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Here are some important steps in most Trademark searches: (You can start on your own, but again, it's best to get a lawyer’s help with this.)

1. Start with some good old fashioned Googling, 
2. Then look at a free database, like USPTO’s or UKIPO’s own databases 
3. Next you can do a deeper dive with paid database or software platform, like Markify or TM TKO;
4. For something more comprehensive (and expensive), you can order a comprehensive search from a vendor like Clarivate or Corsearch (but know that this just gives you the data; it doesn’t interpret or analyze it for you)
5. OR, best of all, hire a lawyer to do all this for you

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So that’s your intro to Trademark searches! Fingers crossed on that great name!