diff --git a/docs/kittens/ssh.rst b/docs/kittens/ssh.rst
index bdbe4a2d0..bbeb45bb6 100644
--- a/docs/kittens/ssh.rst
+++ b/docs/kittens/ssh.rst
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ Additionally, you can pass config options on the command line:
 The :code:`--kitten` argument can be specified multiple times, with directives
 from :file:`ssh.conf`. These are merged with :file:`ssh.conf` as if they were
 appended to the end of that file. They apply only to the host being SSHed to
-by this invocation.
+by this invocation, so any :opt:`hostname` directives are ignored.
 
 .. note::
 
diff --git a/kittens/ssh/main.py b/kittens/ssh/main.py
index cda28890b..b261947b0 100644
--- a/kittens/ssh/main.py
+++ b/kittens/ssh/main.py
@@ -552,7 +552,9 @@ def run_ssh(ssh_args: List[str], server_args: List[str], found_extra_args: Tuple
     pat = re.compile(r'^([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)[ \t]*=')
     for i, a in enumerate(found_extra_args):
         if i % 2 == 1:
-            overrides.append(pat.sub(r'\1 ', a.lstrip()))
+            aq = pat.sub(r'\1 ', a.lstrip())
+            if aq.split(maxsplit=1)[0] != 'hostname':
+                overrides.append(aq)
     if overrides:
         overrides.insert(0, f'hostname {uname}@{hostname_for_match}')
     so = init_config(overrides)