Convert a found gameobject's name to a string

So, what I'm trying to do here is get the name of the closest gameobject to the player. (This script is attached to the player and works well):

 // Find all game objects with tag Loot
 var nameofclosestloot = "";
 var gos : GameObject[];
 gos = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag("Loot"); 
 var closestloot : GameObject; 
 var distance = Mathf.Infinity; 
 var position = transform.position; 
 // Iterate through them and find the closest one
 for (var go : GameObject in gos)  { 
 var diff = (go.transform.position - position);
 var curDistance = diff.sqrMagnitude; 
 if (curDistance < distance) { 
 closestloot = go; 
 distance = curDistance; 
 } 
 } 
         
 Debug.Log(closestloot);
 // result is something like 'weap_barrel_short 4 (UnityEngine.GameObject)'
 nameofclosestloot = closestloot;
 // how to convert this to a string variable?

My problem is, the debug result will return 'weap_barrel_short 4 (UnityEngine.GameObject)' for example. If I try to do anything with this like,

 nameofclosestloot = nameofclosestloot.Replace ("(UnityEngine.GameObject)", "");

I get the error Cannot convert 'UnityEngine.GameObject' to 'String'.

So, how do I convert this to a string?