diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/conversion.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/conversion.go
index 8eedffc9c34..afe4fab15e8 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/conversion.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/conversion.go
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ limitations under the License.
 package runtime
 
 import (
+	"fmt"
 	"reflect"
 	"strconv"
 	"strings"
@@ -26,6 +27,20 @@ import (
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/conversion"
 )
 
+// DefaultFieldSelectorConversion auto-accepts metav1 values for name and namespace.
+// A cluster scoped resource specifying namespace empty works fine and specifying a particular
+// namespace will return no results, as expected.
+func DefaultMetaV1FieldSelectorConversion(label, value string) (string, string, error) {
+	switch label {
+	case "metadata.name":
+		return label, value, nil
+	case "metadata.namespace":
+		return label, value, nil
+	default:
+		return "", "", fmt.Errorf("%q is not a known field selector: only %q, %q", label, "metadata.name", "metadata.namespace")
+	}
+}
+
 // JSONKeyMapper uses the struct tags on a conversion to determine the key value for
 // the other side. Use when mapping from a map[string]* to a struct or vice versa.
 func JSONKeyMapper(key string, sourceTag, destTag reflect.StructTag) (string, string) {
diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/scheme.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/scheme.go
index ee78705b79c..c3d4b7f5f8e 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/scheme.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/scheme.go
@@ -454,11 +454,11 @@ func (s *Scheme) Convert(in, out interface{}, context interface{}) error {
 // versioned representation to an unversioned one.
 func (s *Scheme) ConvertFieldLabel(version, kind, label, value string) (string, string, error) {
 	if s.fieldLabelConversionFuncs[version] == nil {
-		return "", "", fmt.Errorf("No field label conversion function found for version: %s", version)
+		return DefaultMetaV1FieldSelectorConversion(label, value)
 	}
 	conversionFunc, ok := s.fieldLabelConversionFuncs[version][kind]
 	if !ok {
-		return "", "", fmt.Errorf("No field label conversion function found for version %s and kind %s", version, kind)
+		return DefaultMetaV1FieldSelectorConversion(label, value)
 	}
 	return conversionFunc(label, value)
 }