I look at what kind of culture I want and decide what the language sounds like. In my current novel, the characters start out in a city with some Russian characteristics so I put some sounds together that sound Russian to me. (I took 2 years of Russian in high school. I still know how to say in Russian, "After lunch, we pick mushrooms.") Is it actually Russian? Nope. But it keeps the names in that area consistant since I have an idea of what sounds to use. Another area has some Italian influence, so the names and places are very different than the first area, but have their own consistancy. I will admit, I have dictionary-surfed as well for people and town names. I go to used bookstores and get old copies of ___-Engish dictionaries just for that purpose. Hmmm ... speaking of which, I may name a few towns with a bastardization of "After lunch, we pick mushroms." Just because. ;-) Cheers!