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Went to local library today and found a book of Finnish surnames. About Honkola it said that the name can be derived from an ancient person’s name “Hongoi”. According to the book, other names that have resulted from the same origin are Honko and Honkonen.
Very common interpretation is also that the name has the word “honka” inside it. Honka means the same as “mänty”, that is pine in Finnish. In my family there lives a legend that the family name was given after a huge pine tree that grew near the house. The pine was then cut down and taken to the coastal town of Pietarsaari where they built wooden ships. From the pine they made a mast of a big sailing ship!
Maybe that's all just some fairy tale, but what is true, is that in earlier papers the surname of my family was first Honganmäki (“a hill of pine”), under the Swedish rule it was changed into Hongola, until it finally turned into Honkola.
In the US there are also Hongolas. I guess it’s basically the same as Honkola.