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The name appears to have originated as a French surname derived from the town of Cloyes, near Paris. People surnamed Cloyes emigrated to England as early as the 1500s (during one religious persecution or another), and spelling variants such as Cloyse, Cloyce, and Clyes developed in short order. Spelling was, after all, not a skill of the common man in those days, and in rural areas remained pretty much a creative, free-form exercise until the mid-1700s.

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Anyway, the Cloyse (or Cloyes or Cloyce) family or parts thereof had moved on to New England by the late 1600's, just in time for one Sarah Cloyse to narrowly avoid being hanged as a witch in 1692 Salem.

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I would guess that at some point, elements of the family moved South where, as often happens, the family surname Cloyce eventually was put to use as a first name. Still a very common practice in the South...

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Not much to go on, but I hope that's of some help.

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- Da.