A topological best match naming convention apparatus and method for graphical user interface (GUI) testing are provided. With the apparatus and method, properties of the GUI object are recorded and stored in a GUI object database. During execution of test scripts, if a lookup of an GUI object's name to its runtime control fails, the present invention attempts to perform a match with the currently known objects. The matching mechanism is based on a comparison of the properties of the GUI object to properties of known GUI objects. With this mechanism, a predetermined set of properties is collected from the GUI object that is subject to the test script and for which the lookup of the runtime control failed. Each property of the known GUI objects in the GUI object database is assigned a weight based on the probability that a GUI object having a matching property is the same GUI object. Each property is checked for a match and if a match is identified, the corresponding weight is added to a total count kept for each correspondence. A correspondence between a GUI object and a known GUI object having a highest total weight is selected as a best candidate for use in determining the runtime control for the GUI object.