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Marttala (/'mart:ala/) is a Finnish surname that literally means "the place of Martta", but in context probably means "the farm of Martta".
Until the early 20th century, Finland was a predominantly agrarian society and the names of West Finns were based on their association with a particular area, farm, or homestead.
The suffix "‑la" (or the front vowel harmony variant "‑lä") is a locative suffix usually meaning "place of". Farm names typically had the suffix "‑la" or "‑lä", and could refer to a person (in this case, Martta).
"Martta" is a Finnish female name derived from a Latin spelling of "Μαρθα" (Martha), which is a Greek form of the Hebrew name "מרתא" (Marta). The historical meanings of these names, along with the Aramaic variant "Marta", specifically refer to a woman, lady, mistress, or housewife.
Farm names and village names could be used to disambiguate between different people, but they were not true inherited surnames. These names could change every time a person moved to a different farm.
In 1921, surnames became compulsory for all Finns. At this point, if there was no surname, the farm or homestead names were usually adopted as surnames. Because the inhabitants often included farmhands and other non-family, holders of the same surname are not necessarily related. Today many Finns (including the Marttala's) have a surname ending in "‑la" or "‑lä", transferred from names of farms and small villages.