India-no-place

They were twenty-year-old twins who had just moved out from Indianapolis, or “India-no-place,” as they said. They wanted to be stars.

Source: wiktionary

Hardly anybody writes odes to Indianapolis. No Sandburg or Gershwin has ever praised the Midwestern city’s hard American beauty. No bustling metropolis, that town; no seething cauldron of culture. Instead, folks mockingly called it “India-no-place.”

Source: wiktionary

These monikers are frequently descriptive (“The Capital City”), associated with a prominent industry (“The Railroad City”), geographical (“Crossroads of America”), sports-related (home of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing”), religiously inspired (“City of Churches”), derogatory (“Naptown,” “India-no-place,” “End-of-No-Place”), or abbreviations (“Indy”).

Source: wiktionary

It has a sort of big city, whose nickname is India-no-place, but the rest of the state is composed of small towns with little opportunity.

Source: wiktionary