Just to toss another name in the hat: Take a look at the Magnum Research Baby Eagle.
It’s an Israeli weapon with a reasonable price tag. I got mine for ~$500, and you can get ‘em in steel or polymer.
Yup, I second that. It's my carry 9mm and I like it very much. It's a very strong but relatively light gun built on the proven CZ 75/85 chassis. Unlike the CZ, it has a decocker safety. The new ones have an integral accessory rail. I prefer it to any of the polymer guns that I have fired. The only drawbacks is a scarcity of accessories and the expense of extra mags.
It's also cool to have a gun that says "Made in Israel" on it. It creates cosmic levels of irony when it shares the range bag with my Nazi-marked Luger.