Paul Vogel <paul(dot)vogel(at)deadeyesoftware(dot)com> writes:
> So something is
> apparently different between the command line "createdb" command and the
> "create database" command.
Not a lot ... createdb just runs psql to issue a create database
command. One possibility is that you gave createdb a mixed-case
database name, because it will double-quote the name before passing
it on to create database.
regards, tom lane