diff --git a/pkg/api/rest/rest.go b/pkg/api/rest/rest.go
index 32c78215ca2..584670f7789 100644
--- a/pkg/api/rest/rest.go
+++ b/pkg/api/rest/rest.go
@@ -55,6 +55,14 @@ type Storage interface {
 	New() runtime.Object
 }
 
+// KindProvider specifies a different kind for its API than for its internal storage.  This is necessary for external
+// objects that are not compiled into the api server.  For such objects, there is no in-memory representation for
+// the object, so they must be represented as generic objects (e.g. RawJSON), but when we present the object as part of
+// API discovery we want to present the specific kind, not the generic internal representation.
+type KindProvider interface {
+	Kind() string
+}
+
 // Lister is an object that can retrieve resources that match the provided field and label criteria.
 type Lister interface {
 	// NewList returns an empty object that can be used with the List call.
diff --git a/pkg/api/unversioned/types.go b/pkg/api/unversioned/types.go
index 3c77fcfdf91..bc910a61c2c 100644
--- a/pkg/api/unversioned/types.go
+++ b/pkg/api/unversioned/types.go
@@ -339,6 +339,8 @@ type APIResource struct {
 	Name string `json:"name"`
 	// namespaced indicates if a resource is namespaced or not.
 	Namespaced bool `json:"namespaced"`
+	// kind is the kind for the resource (e.g. 'Foo' is the kind for a resource 'foo')
+	Kind string `json:"kind"`
 }
 
 // APIResourceList is a list of APIResource, it is used to expose the name of the
diff --git a/pkg/api/unversioned/types_swagger_doc_generated.go b/pkg/api/unversioned/types_swagger_doc_generated.go
index 6633ddf4fc1..0e2180a1c30 100644
--- a/pkg/api/unversioned/types_swagger_doc_generated.go
+++ b/pkg/api/unversioned/types_swagger_doc_generated.go
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ var map_APIResource = map[string]string{
 	"":           "APIResource specifies the name of a resource and whether it is namespaced.",
 	"name":       "name is the name of the resource.",
 	"namespaced": "namespaced indicates if a resource is namespaced or not.",
+	"kind":       "kind is the kind for the resource (e.g. 'Foo' is the kind for a resource 'foo')",
 }
 
 func (APIResource) SwaggerDoc() map[string]string {
diff --git a/pkg/apiserver/api_installer.go b/pkg/apiserver/api_installer.go
index 819cec6a198..a2ca78e5e4d 100644
--- a/pkg/apiserver/api_installer.go
+++ b/pkg/apiserver/api_installer.go
@@ -152,10 +152,11 @@ func (a *APIInstaller) registerResourceHandlers(path string, storage rest.Storag
 		}
 	}
 
+	kind := fqKindToRegister.Kind
+
 	if fqKindToRegister.IsEmpty() {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("unable to locate fully qualified kind for %v: found %v when registering for %v", reflect.TypeOf(object), fqKinds, a.group.GroupVersion)
 	}
-	kind := fqKindToRegister.Kind
 
 	versionedPtr, err := a.group.Creater.New(a.group.GroupVersion.WithKind(kind))
 	if err != nil {
@@ -322,6 +323,14 @@ func (a *APIInstaller) registerResourceHandlers(path string, storage rest.Storag
 	params := []*restful.Parameter{}
 	actions := []action{}
 
+	var resourceKind string
+	kindProvider, ok := storage.(rest.KindProvider)
+	if ok {
+		resourceKind = kindProvider.Kind()
+	} else {
+		resourceKind = fqKindToRegister.Kind
+	}
+
 	var apiResource unversioned.APIResource
 	// Get the list of actions for the given scope.
 	switch scope.Name() {
@@ -339,6 +348,7 @@ func (a *APIInstaller) registerResourceHandlers(path string, storage rest.Storag
 		}
 		apiResource.Name = path
 		apiResource.Namespaced = false
+		apiResource.Kind = resourceKind
 		namer := rootScopeNaming{scope, a.group.Linker, gpath.Join(a.prefix, itemPath)}
 
 		// Handler for standard REST verbs (GET, PUT, POST and DELETE).
@@ -381,6 +391,7 @@ func (a *APIInstaller) registerResourceHandlers(path string, storage rest.Storag
 		}
 		apiResource.Name = path
 		apiResource.Namespaced = true
+		apiResource.Kind = resourceKind
 		namer := scopeNaming{scope, a.group.Linker, gpath.Join(a.prefix, itemPath), false}
 
 		actions = appendIf(actions, action{"LIST", resourcePath, resourceParams, namer}, isLister)
diff --git a/pkg/client/unversioned/client_test.go b/pkg/client/unversioned/client_test.go
index 8fdfe4ecd24..487591c5da2 100644
--- a/pkg/client/unversioned/client_test.go
+++ b/pkg/client/unversioned/client_test.go
@@ -137,17 +137,17 @@ func TestGetServerResources(t *testing.T) {
 	stable := unversioned.APIResourceList{
 		GroupVersion: "v1",
 		APIResources: []unversioned.APIResource{
-			{"pods", true},
-			{"services", true},
-			{"namespaces", false},
+			{"pods", true, "Pod"},
+			{"services", true, "Service"},
+			{"namespaces", false, "Namespace"},
 		},
 	}
 	beta := unversioned.APIResourceList{
 		GroupVersion: "extensions/v1",
 		APIResources: []unversioned.APIResource{
-			{"deployments", true},
-			{"ingresses", true},
-			{"jobs", true},
+			{"deployments", true, "Deployment"},
+			{"ingresses", true, "Ingress"},
+			{"jobs", true, "Job"},
 		},
 	}
 	tests := []struct {
diff --git a/pkg/registry/thirdpartyresourcedata/etcd/etcd.go b/pkg/registry/thirdpartyresourcedata/etcd/etcd.go
index 505cb8f7801..98e7662a9f7 100644
--- a/pkg/registry/thirdpartyresourcedata/etcd/etcd.go
+++ b/pkg/registry/thirdpartyresourcedata/etcd/etcd.go
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ import (
 // REST implements a RESTStorage for ThirdPartyResourceDatas against etcd
 type REST struct {
 	*etcdgeneric.Etcd
+	kind string
 }
 
 // NewREST returns a registry which will store ThirdPartyResourceData in the given helper
@@ -64,5 +65,13 @@ func NewREST(s storage.Interface, storageDecorator generic.StorageDecorator, gro
 		Storage: storageInterface,
 	}
 
-	return &REST{store}
+	return &REST{
+		Etcd: store,
+		kind: kind,
+	}
+}
+
+// Implements the rest.KindProvider interface
+func (r *REST) Kind() string {
+	return r.kind
 }