Unless it's a verb that ends with -ano. In that case, stress the preceding consonant. It's kind of like the difference between urAnus and Uranus. There are other exceptions, but that's the most common and important one.
It's a general rule of thumb, so it wouldn't apply to proper nouns, but I did edit to specify verbs rather than all words in general. I do appreciate the irony that the example I chose breaks that guideline.
