The advice I commonly hear is “buy a glock.” Seems to work out for folks I know.

If you have a range USA near you then you can rent some guns there to try out - its included with a membership. If you’re not familiar with handguns though then they do require you come with someone for the first time. This was how I recently picked up my first , I basically just tried everything and only paid for ammo and targets (went with someone who had a membership).

If you want more things to help narrow down, look for “striker fired” (as opposed to “hammer fired”) , 9mm, just to keep it simple.

One thing that will help you get comfortable with whatever you purchase more quickly is dry firing very regularly. It’ll help ingrain safety practices, stance, grip, and trigger pull. Everything but the BOOM and with the added benefit of being a heck of a lot cheaper than going to the range very frequently while you’re learning.