Accounts get created automatically when you use them.
either adds an address (key) to "account", or it creates "account" with a new address.
setaccount "address" "account"
associates an existing address with either a new or old account.
The empty string is the default account. When performing an action that operates on an account, but you don't want it for any specific account, use the empty string. "*" is all accounts, you use it when fetching information.
The quotation marks are not part of the account name, but how to handle them depends on how you are making the RPC calls.