United we sit: German Assmann calls for Assman Summit in New York

A German man who shares a last name similar to Melville, Sask.'s Dave Assman (with a slight difference in spelling) says he understands his brethren's pain at having a surname that people just don't understand.

"I like my name. I'm born with that name," said Frank Assmann, who has come up with an idea to show his support for his Saskatchewan counterpart — an Assman Summit in New York.

"What can be wrong with that name? And that's my way to support Dave, actually."

He said he sympathized when his colleagues in the United States forwarded him a news story about Dave Assman, and how Saskatchewan Government Insurance rejected his "Assman" personalized licence plate as it was deemed unacceptable.

Frank Assmann said when he first began travelling to the U.S., he ran into problems when people would think he was making his name up and hang up on him, or tell him his boarding pass was printed wrong.

Over time, he decided to embrace what became a running joke.

"I'm quite open with that, I sometimes introduce, I make a joke, saying 'Hey, I'm the Assmann. Hey, I'm from Germany. How about you?'" he said, noting he usually gets a smile or laugh in response.

"So it's always that you get easily in touch with other people and so on. It's just lots of fun."

Assmann now has a dream — to invite Dave and all other Assmans to the Assman Summit, where they will all pile into a stretch limousine, with an "Assman" licence plate as immortalized in the show Seinfeld.

"We drive around with as many [Assmans] as we can put into that stretch limousene, and drive around New York and make party."