I started playing around with a Mulan-esque concept for the use of clones in the clone wars. Republic becomes involved in a war threatening to destroy their way of life. Palpatine, a high-ranking politician, demands each family residing in the Republic to offer up one healthy member of their family to fight in the war. To stop their children from being sent off to war, many wealthy families have had clones of their children made to fight in their place, hence the Clone Wars. Another idea I've played around with is that it has nothing to do with clones of people, but rather the wars themselves were clones. One war comes to a close, but the Republic failed to learn from their mistakes, and due to the same set of circumstances as the first, another war breaks out. Similar to how we refer to World War I & II together, even though they were separate affairs. Calling them the "Clone Wars" is really more of a metaphor rather than a literal representation of who fought.