Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s plan to consolidate its share structure, move its headquarters to London and drop Royal Dutch from its name would end its identity as an Anglo-Dutch company after more than a century.

Started by London antique dealer Marcus Samuel in 1833 to import exotic shells from Asia, the Shell Trading & Transport Co., as it was renamed in 1897, became one of the world’s early major oil companies and helped pioneer the use of the oil tanker to transport fuel over long distances. It opened its first refinery in...

Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s plan to consolidate its share structure, move its headquarters to London and drop Royal Dutch from its name would end its identity as an Anglo-Dutch company after more than a century.

Started by London antique dealer Marcus Samuel in 1833 to import exotic shells from Asia, the Shell Trading & Transport Co., as it was renamed in 1897, became one of the world’s early major oil companies and helped pioneer the use of the oil tanker to transport fuel over long distances. It opened its first refinery in Borneo in modern Indonesia—then a Dutch colony—that same year.

Competing with Standard Oil Co., founded by John D. Rockefeller, during the oil industry’s formative years, Shell joined with smaller rival Royal Dutch in 1907, creating the Royal Dutch Shell Group and triggering a period of expansion that would establish the company as a global energy giant.

The Anglo-Dutch alliance grew under the leadership of Dutchman Henri Deterding, who was Royal Dutch’s general manager from 1900 until 1936. He is credited with developing Shell into an industrial powerhouse through acquisitions, including the purchase of oil fields in Azerbaijan from the Rothschild family.

After World War II, the company expanded globally and diversified, tapping into energy markets including coal, nuclear and gas. It took a century of partnership, however, before the British and Dutch parts of the group formally merged in 2005 in a bid to resolve inefficiencies borne of its unusual dual-ownership structure.

The result of that unification was a London-based PLC with a Dutch headquarters and a dual share structure, a setup the company said Monday was never intended to be permanent.

Still, Shell’s latest reorganization, announced Monday, is likely to rankle some in the Netherlands. That could pose a potential hurdle as the company seeks to win shareholder approval next month for the London move. The company requires 75% of votes cast to be in favor for the move to go ahead. Shell said Monday the move would make it easier to return funds to investors and amend its portfolio.

The Dutch government was “unpleasantly surprised” by the company’s decision and “deeply regrets” Shell’s departure from The Hague, Dutch Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Policy Stef Blok said.

The Appomattox, the largest offshore oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, owned by Shell.

Photo: Christopher M. Matthews/The Wall Street Journal

Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden,

a Dutchman, said in local media that the move represented “a difficult message for many people” in the Netherlands.

In one big symbolic change, the company expects to no longer meet the conditions for using the Royal designation since it will cede its Dutch identity, meaning it will drop the moniker after more than 130 years.

Still, Shell was eager to highlight in its announcement Monday that it would retain a strong presence in the Netherlands, even if the company’s headquarters, senior executives—including Mr. van Beurden—and its board meetings were set to relocate to the U.K.

“Shell is proud of its Anglo-Dutch heritage and will continue to be a significant employer with a major present in the Netherlands,” the company said, highlighting that several businesses would remain in The Hague and that it had opted to build a new biofuels plant in the Dutch city of Rotterdam.

Write to Trefor Moss at Trefor.Moss@wsj.com