Remarkable room-temp. liq. crystallinity is obsd. for a wide range of metal soaps. Incorporation of satd., mid-chain mono-Me branched C17 fatty acid (mid-chain branched fatty acid) into metal soaps lowers the liq. cryst. transition to below room temp. Soaps of Na, Mg, Al, Ca, Cu, Zn, Sr, Ag, Cd, La, Ce, Tb and Lu were synthesized and characterized via XRD, FTIR, DSC, optical microscopy, d. detns. and other phys. methods. The main room temp. mesophase identified in the soaps here is a liq. cryst. hexagonal columnar phase, 1st described by Luzzati et al. A comparative anal. of the branched soaps with their satd., linear analogs is given. Implications for room temp. columnar soap structure is discussed in terms of the various phys. parameters found for these soaps.