So are the 1800 mAh cells the preferred ones to get?
For AA, yes, 1800 is the current highest rating.

What does that number actually represent?
Milli-Amp Hour, which is the capacity rating for the cell. Therefore, the higher the rating, the longer it will last.

Any recommendations for a good charger?

Now here's where the fun part is... Good rule to go by is: Charge slow, your batteries will last longer. So, only use a rapid charger if you NEED to. There are a few models that will actually allow you to switch their charging "behaviour" from trickle, to medium, to rapid. This one is probably "the best" one to get at the moment; it could be said that it's the uber-charger as it has a digital display that shows voltage, and capacity (among other things). The one under that is probably the best buy for the money. It will charge just about any NiMH & NiCAD you could find, it does trickle and rapid charging, but it will require that you also purchase battery holder(s). Something like this is good to have around as a secondary charger (maybe even just for conditioning), and is definitely good enough to have as a primary as well, if you're not going to be doing a lot of charging and switching. The other chargers go down from there, I guess it really just depends on how much you're going to be using them and how much you're willing to invest.

So I guess no name batteries are just as good as brand named ones?

As far as i've seen, yeah. I've used Panasonic, PowerEx, Energizer, Rayovac, and a few others that I can't remember right now and all of the ones that have the same mAh rating have performed pretty much the same. There are a few brands that tend to test at higher mAh ratings than they are sold at, but most of the time it's not really significant enough for it to be worth paying more for them. Of course, if you can find them at the same price, or cheaper, then go for it.

There's a ton of information on the Thomas Distributing site, and most (if not all) of the products they sell are of pretty high quality.

Oh, one more thing I should note: When you put batteries into a device, it is recommended that you use the same brand and rating. If you start to mix brands/ratings you might notice weird behaviour and/or a decrease in battery life. I've put two Panasonic's and two Rayovac's into my Mini-Z (because they were the only ones charged and I just wanted to get back into the race) and had it respond sluggishly, as well as having the two Panasonic's die within just a few minutes while the Rayovac's were barely touched. Needless to say, I never did that again.

Hope that helps..... Now I'm REALLY tired.....Time to go charge MY batteries (couldn't resist)