Problem with mysql

[Chris Hallgren]

ok here is my problem i have redhat 7 i installed mysql via the rpm and i get the 
following error 

mysql> select  chrishallgren;
ERROR 1054: Unknown column 'chrishallgren' in 'field list'
mysql> select ' chrishallgren';
+----------------+
|  chrishallgren |
+----------------+
|  chrishallgren |
+----------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

for some reason i need a space to select the database is this normal and if not how do 
i fix it