https://github.com/theforeman/foreman/pull/902
This one is bite-size and might be considered for 1.3

I like blanking the IP, but the name may be undesirable. Suppose you clone web1 to web2, then it's helpful to already have the name there. It would be nice to have auto increment the numbers if detected and checked for duplicates (if web2 is already taken, it tries web3). Maybe this could make a cool plugin. It could also suggest the name for new VMs based on the host group name.

I understand your point of view. But I disagree with using the source host name as a name for the cloned host, as it is predestined to fail. The name is e.g. checked against DNS. You see the old name in the URL of the cloning page anyway.

I would rather suggest adding an informative field to the form that shows you what host you are cloning from. What I do agree with, that in the future there should be a new option for hostgroups to auto-suggest new host names based on some regexp rules.

I must admit I haven't cloned a host recently. If the old hostname is still visible, but not filled in would be sufficient.