The Jewish Communities Database on Jewishgen gives the names of a place in Yiddish, Polish, Russian, whatever is appropriate.  The only drawback is that it only has big Jewish Communities, so if your family was one of only a few Jewish families in town, it wouldn't be there.

For example, Golinka (Russian), Alinka (Yiddish), Holynka (Belarussian). All the same town.

Sally Bruckheimer
Princeton, NJ

"could not figure out from the Yiddish name what the Polish one is."